Chapter 2228

  Facts soon proved that Sokov's judgment was correct. The reason why Miyakov did not contact Kirillov for a long time was indeed because of a problem with the radio station.

   It is reasonable to say that in order to ensure that the command is not lost during the operation, in addition to the radio station carried by the infantry regiment performing the mission, even Miakov also brought a radio station. According to his thinking, even if there is a problem with the radio station on the road, one cannot be used, and the other one can continue to keep in touch with the division headquarters.

   Unexpectedly, due to the melting snow, the road was muddy and difficult to move. The communication vehicle sent by the division headquarters overturned on the side of the road, not to mention breaking the radio station, and the operator was also injured. The radio station of the infantry regiment was unfortunately hit by mortar fire when the troops exchanged fire with the guards of the prisoner-of-war camp and was destroyed.

  After capturing the prisoner-of-war camp, Miyakov originally planned to use the German army's radio station to send a telegram to Kirillov, informing him of the news that he had captured the prisoner-of-war camp. Unexpectedly, after a search, they found out that the guards saw that the prisoner-of-war camp could no longer hold, and directly blew up their communication room, and all the radio stations inside were also reimbursed in the explosion.

  Without the radio station, it was impossible to get in touch with the division headquarters, and Miyakov stomped his feet in anger. Fortunately, he calmed down quickly, met two communication soldiers, handed over the report he wrote to them, and told them: "Our radio station has been destroyed, and we can't get in touch with the division headquarters. Return to Letzen by motorbike and report the situation here to the division commander."

  After receiving the order, the two communication soldiers did not dare to neglect in the slightest, and hurriedly rode their motorcycles towards Letzen. When they walked halfway, they met the communication soldiers sent by Kirillov. After the two parties communicated, they realized that Kirilov was worried about something wrong because he could not wait for the news from Miyakov. He sent himself over to check.

After the communication soldiers sent by Miakov told the two groups of communication soldiers who came over about the situation in the prisoner-of-war camp, after the other party figured out what was going on, a group of communication soldiers with Miakov went back to report the situation. The other group rushed to the prisoner-of-war camp to meet Miyakov with a radio, preparing to re-establish communication between the prisoner-of-war camp and the division headquarters.

  Kirilov, who was staying in Letzen's headquarters, was walking back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back like an ant on a hot pot at the moment. Originally, his chief of staff had not been found for a long time, which made him uneasy. In addition, Sokov made several consecutive phone calls to inquire about the situation of the prisoner-of-war camp, which made Kirillov even more irritable.

   At this moment, a staff officer suddenly exclaimed: "Comrade commander, the telegram is a telegram from the chief of staff."

  Hearing the staff officer's shout, Kirillov stopped pacing, rushed to the staff officer's side quickly, and asked him urgently, "Where is the chief of staff's telegram?"

  The staff officer pointed to the communication soldier who was busy next to the radio station, and said: "He is receiving a telegram from the chief of staff, and you will soon know how the prisoner-of-war camp is going."

   A few minutes later, the staff officer took the newly translated telegram from the messenger and handed it to Kirillov: "Comrade commander, telegram."

Kirillov took the telegram and quickly browsed it, only to see that it said: "The radio station I was carrying was out of order and could not get in touch with the division headquarters. I sent people to contact the division headquarters. The two groups you sent The messengers met them, one group followed them back to Lezen, and reported to you the details of the capture of the prisoner-of-war camp; the other group rushed to the prisoner-of-war camp and let us restore contact with the division headquarters. Send a telegram to briefly explain the situation: the prisoner-of-war camp was successfully occupied by our army, the original 130 German guards were all wiped out, more than 3,400 commanders and fighters of our army were rescued, and they are being provided with necessary food and medical staff Check them out."

After reading the telegram sent by Miyakov in one breath, Kirillov let go of the big stone in his heart. He pointed to the staff officer in front of him and said, "Help me connect to the Army Command immediately. Commander report."

After the call was connected, Kirillov said to Sokov who answered the phone in an excited tone: "Comrade commander, I have good news for you. The prisoner-of-war camp has been successfully occupied by our army and more than 3,400 prisoners of ours have been rescued." Army commanders and fighters, Lieutenant Colonel Miyakov is now providing them with food and checking their health."

"Great, this is really great." Sokov was also very happy to hear Kirillov's report, and he continued to ask: "I don't know how many commanders there are among the more than 3,400 people. And what level are they?"

  Sokov's new question stopped Kirillov from asking. After hesitating for a moment, he replied: "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I can't answer your question for the time being, because the content of my chief of staff's telegram is very simple, and there is no mention of this matter at all. Only the signal soldiers sent by him will bring I can give you an accurate answer only after returning a detailed report."

   "By the way, why didn't they contact you when they occupied the prisoner-of-war camp?"

   "It is said that the radio station is out of order, so that I cannot be contacted." Kirillov replied: "The radio station he sent me was sent to me just now."

"So that's how it is." Sokov told Kirillov: "I'll call Comrade Marshal right now and report on your seizure of the prisoner-of-war camp. If the messenger sent by Lieutenant Colonel Miyakov comes back, you can tell me more about it." Report to me the specific situation. Understand?"

"clear."

  Sokov nodded in satisfaction, and put down the phone in his hand.

"Military Commissar, Comrade Chief of Staff." He said to Lunev and Sidolin: "As I guessed, it was indeed because of a malfunction in the radio that Kirillov and the troops sent to the prisoner-of-war camp Lost contact. Now he sent a signal soldier to send a new radio station, and the two sides re-established contact."

   "I don't know what their results are?" Lunev asked cautiously: "How many of our commanders and fighters are detained in the prisoner-of-war camp?"

"There are more than 3,400 people." Sokov did not wait for Lunev to ask again, and he took the initiative to say: "Because the telegram did not make it clear, so far, it is not known how many of these rescued commanders are commanders. What are the different levels? Everything will have to wait until Miyakov’s detailed report reaches Letzen, and Kirillov will report to us.”

"Strange." After Sukov finished speaking, Sidolin on the side said thoughtfully: "According to my analysis, it is absolutely impossible for them to carry out such a task and the division chief of staff personally leads the team. Carrying a radio, how could it lose contact with the division headquarters, is there any problem in it?"

Sokov has also considered Sidolin's speculation, but there is no more specific report back yet, so he is not sure what the situation is: "Comrade Chief of Staff, don't worry, I believe it will It won't be long before General Kirillov will give us a satisfactory answer."

  After saying this, he ordered the director of the communications army: "Comrade director of the communications army, please connect me to the headquarters of the front army, and I will report to Comrade Marshal."

  A few minutes later, the call was connected to the Front Army Command, and the person who answered the call was Chief of Staff Bogolyubov: "Hello, this is the Front Army Command. I am Chief of Staff Bogolyubov. Where are you?"

   "Hello, Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front Army," Sokov said respectfully, "I am Sokov, Commander of the 48th Army Group. I have something to report to Comrade Marshal. Is he by your side at the moment?"

  Bogolyubov glanced at Rokossovsky who was chatting with Subbotin not far away, nodded, and said, "He is here. Wait a minute, I will let him answer the phone."

   Rokossovsky took the microphone from Bogolyubov, "Hello, Misha? I'm Rokossovsky. Is there any news from the POW camp?"

   "Yes, Comrade Marshal." Sokov replied, "There is indeed news from the prisoner-of-war camp."

   "Tell me, how is the situation of the troops sent, have you found the prisoner-of-war camp that the enemy said, and are there any commanders and fighters of our army who have been imprisoned in it."

Sokov waited for Rokossovsky to finish asking a series of questions, and then said: "The troops dispatched have found and liberated the prisoner-of-war camp, and rescued all the 3,400 commanders and fighters imprisoned in it. They provided food and checked the body."

   "Since the prisoner-of-war camp has been liberated, why hasn't it been reported?" Rokossovsky asked puzzled.

"I asked General Kirillov, and he said it was because there was a problem with the radio station." Sokov worried that Rokossovsky would continue to ask, so he took the initiative to say: "But what happened to the radio station will have to wait Only after the communications troops sent by the division chief of staff return to Roetzen can they figure it out."

"The rescue of 3,400 people is really a very good achievement." Rokossovsky said with emotion: "It is equivalent to increasing the strength of half a division for nothing. If each of our troops can find a prisoner-of-war camp of this size , even if we don’t get supplements from the Supreme Command, we can still ensure that there are enough soldiers for the next stage of operations.”

   "Comrade Commander," Sokov said with a grin, "but unfortunately, except for the vicinity of Letzen, there seems to be no German prisoner-of-war camps in the rest of the area."

"No, it's not that I didn't find it, it's that the commander in charge of the area didn't look for it at all." Rokosovsky said with a straight face: "I will immediately issue an order to the troops to let all the troops in the area under their control Search inside to see if there are any prisoner-of-war camps established by the Germans, and if so, we must liberate all the detained commanders and fighters."

After the conversation between Rokossovsky and Sokov ended, he said to Bogolyubov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, Misha has just reported that the search of the 3rd Infantry Division in the forest north of Letzen has achieved great results. They found a prisoner-of-war camp where more than 3,400 commanders and fighters of our army were held, and rescued them all. Now you draft an order to let each group army send personnel to search in the area under their control to see if there are Germans A prisoner-of-war camp established by humans. Once found, troops will be sent to rescue them immediately, and the officers and fighters rescued from them will be replenished to the unit nearby.”

   "Understood." Bogolyubov replied loudly: "I will immediately convey your order to the commanders of the armies."

   Besides, the communications troops sent by Miyakov finally rushed back to Letzen after a long journey. They hurried to the division headquarters and handed over the detailed report written by Miyakov to Kirillov.

After quickly reading the telegram, Kirillov figured out what happened to the loss of contact with Miyakov, and he couldn't help but sigh with emotion. If Sokov hadn't urged him to send someone to check, he might have reached this point. In order to find out what happened in the prisoner-of-war camp.

  Now that the situation has been clarified, it is natural to report to Sokov, and Kirillov picked up the phone again.

   Sokov received a call from Kirillov, and after finding out why the troops commanded by Miyakov lost contact with the division headquarters, he couldn't help crying and laughing. But now that the other party has successfully completed the task, he can no longer blame the other party, but said tactfully: "General Kirillov, you must learn this lesson, and remember to bring an extra belt with you when you perform similar tasks next time. A radio station can prevent this situation from happening again."

   Just before Sokov was about to put down the phone, he suddenly heard Kirillov say: "Comrade Commander, I saw a familiar name in the list of commanders provided by Chief of Staff Miakov."

   "A familiar name?" Sokov asked without thinking, "Is it someone you know?"

   "No, I don't know him." Kirillov replied bluntly, "But I have heard you mention him."

   "What, I mentioned this person?" Sokov asked in surprise, "Who is it?"

   "Major Gavrilov." Kirillov glanced at the remarks behind the name, and added: "He was captured in the Brest Fortress."

  Sokov's breathing became short of breath. He didn't expect that his troops would accidentally rescue Gavrilov. But just to be on the safe side, he also tentatively asked, "Are you sure you were captured in the Brest Fortress?"

   "Yes." Kirillov nodded, and replied in a firm tone: "The information shows that he was the head of the 44th Infantry Regiment before he was captured."

Seeing that what Kirillov said was completely consistent with the information he knew, Sokov could already conclude in his heart that the rescued commander was the hero Gavrilov who defended the Brest Fortress back then. Major. He quickly said into the microphone: "General Kirillov, listen, once this major returns to Letzen, you will send someone to the headquarters, do you understand what I said?"

   "Understood, Comrade Commander." Kirillov replied: "As soon as he comes back, I will immediately arrange for someone to send him there."

  After putting down the phone, Sokov began to think about how to place a hero like Gavrilov. It stands to reason that after all captured officers are rescued, they will be reviewed for a period of time. After the review is completed, differentiated arrangements will be made.

   "Misha, what are you thinking, so preoccupied?" Lunev asked from the side.

"Comrade Military Commissar, I have heard before that this Major Gavrilov organized a group of soldiers to fight against the enemy's 45th Infantry Division in the Brest Fortress on the day the war broke out. After his sacrifices were exhausted, he persisted in the fortress alone for nearly a month, until he was finally wounded and captured. I am thinking about how we should place him for such a hero.”

  (end of this chapter)