Chapter 2245

  As the order was issued, the aircraft fleet that had been on standby on the runway of the field airport for a long time took off one after another. After completing the formation in the air, they flew towards the position on the west bank of the West Oder River, preparing to bomb the exposed German artillery position.

  Not long after the German artillery fired, they realized that they had been deceived. The area bombarded by their own side was indeed filled with smoke and flames, but they did not fight back at all. On the contrary, a large number of shells flew from other directions and landed on their own artillery positions to explode. The artillery commander stomped his feet anxiously when he saw his own artillery being hit by Soviet artillery fire from time to time. He knew very well that changing the position at this moment might cause huge casualties, so he could only bite the bullet and order his subordinates to move towards The direction from which the Soviet artillery shells flew back fired back.

  Unexpectedly, there was the roar of aircraft engines in the sky at this time, and then the commander saw groups of aircraft flying towards the location of the artillery position.

The two flying regiments led by Vershinen were all Il-2 attack aircraft, which had two 7.62mm machine guns, two 23mm machine guns, two rockets hanging in front of the aircraft, and Six hundred kilograms of aerial bombs. In addition, there is a rotatable 12.7mm machine gun in the rear seat, which is very suitable for attacking ground targets.

   Still far away, the pilots discovered the German artillery positions being bombarded, and lowered their altitude one after another to attack ground targets. When these planes completed their attack and raised their altitude again, the German artillery on the ground could hardly find anything to continue firing.

Destroying the German artillery positions so easily was not enough for Vershinen. After all, before he arrived here, the artillery of the 48th Army and the artillery of the enemy were firing at each other. Came here to pick peaches. So he issued an order to the pilots through the onboard radio: "The plane that has run out of ammunition will return immediately, and the rest of the planes will search for new attack targets with themselves."

   Soon, Vershinen found a convoy driving on the road. This convoy was reinforcements transferred by the German army from the second-line position. They saw their river defense positions being shelled and thought that the Soviet army was about to launch an attack, so they hurriedly dispatched an infantry regiment and rushed to the river by truck to prepare for reinforcements. The defense there, who knows, has become the target of Soviet aircraft attack.

  Seeing the oncoming Soviet plane, the German regiment commander sitting in the bucket cart hastily issued an order: "Spread out and hide!"

  But because he was too nervous, his order made the adjutant at a loss. He didn't know whether the regiment commander ordered the truck to disperse immediately and hide in the nearby forest; or ordered all the soldiers to get off the vehicle and choose a place to avoid air attack? But now that the vehicle is driving at high speed on the road, if it does not stop, how can the soldiers in the carriage get out of the vehicle and hide?

   It was precisely because of the ambiguous order of the German commander that the officers and soldiers missed the best time to hide. Because the Soviet planes came too fast, the adjutant had not had time to convey the order, and the convoy was bombed by Soviet planes.

   Explosions sounded one after another, mixed with the roar of fighter jets swooping down and the sound of machine guns firing. Several trucks that had been shot burst into flames, and the surviving soldiers in the vehicles lifted the burning tarpaulins, screamed strangely, jumped out of the moving vehicles, and fled to the sides of the road to find a suitable place to hide.

   Fortunately, the driver of the barrel truck was very clever, and hurriedly drove the car to the side of the road and stopped, allowing the regiment leader and adjutant to open the door and jump out of the car, and jumped into the ditch on the side of the road to hide.

  The planes of the Soviet Army kept diving and pulling up over the convoy, strafing and dropping bombs at the targets on the ground, and did not raise the altitude and flew towards the airport until all the ammunition they carried was exhausted.

  Seeing the Soviet plane leaving, the distraught commander of the German army climbed out of the ravine. After he saw the scene on the road clearly, tears almost fell down. The convoys that were originally marching in a neat formation are now scattered all over the place. Some were blown up on all fours, and the car body lay crookedly on the road, and the wheels were still spinning; The smell of burnt corpses; there are also some vehicles that look relatively intact, but the soldiers inside who have not had time to get out of the vehicles have all turned into corpses, either lying in the carriages in disorder, or hanging around the carriages. The blood of the car was dyed a shocking red.

   Just like that, a German infantry regiment rushing to the front line for reinforcements suffered heavy casualties under the attack of the air force led by Vershinen. The head of the regiment gave an order to the adjutant: "Gather the remaining people immediately, and then collect the intact cars. Some people take cars, some people walk, and continue to the defense line by the river."

  But the adjutant smiled bitterly and said, "Mr. Colonel, I don't think I can carry out your order."

   "Why?" The commander of the German army asked puzzled.

"Look." The adjutant pointed to the fleeing soldiers and said, "Mr. Colonel, we are the People's Grenadier, and the soldiers are basically old people and children who have no combat experience. Where have they seen such a tragic scene. This is not , as soon as the airstrike ended, they started fleeing."

Faced with so many deserters, the commander of the German army really wanted to kill them all, or hang them directly on the wire pole, but after thinking about it, there were only a few people left around him, and it was difficult to deal with so many deserters. It is the Arabian Nights. Maybe he had just shot two deserters before he would be killed by other angry soldiers.

  Seeing the head of the regiment standing there in a daze, the adjutant asked tentatively: "Mr. Colonel, should we report what happened here to the division headquarters? As long as we get the permission of the division commander, we can retreat in a legitimate way."

"Yes, yes, you are right." The commander of the German Army quickly nodded in agreement with the adjutant's proposal: "Our communication vehicle has not been blown up, has it? Report to him about the situation and ask him to allow us to retreat."

  When Vershinen's air force was dispatched to bomb the German artillery positions and reinforcement convoys on the West Bank, it alarmed the 65th Army on the left.

   After receiving a call from the forward observation post, Glebov was very surprised and asked for a few details. When he put down the phone, he said to Batov: "Comrade Commander, the forward observation post reported that the 48th Army on our right wing is shelling the enemy on the other side, and the Air Force has also dispatched a large number of fighter planes to attack the positions on the West Bank." bombing."

  After hearing this, Batov asked in shock: "What's going on? Did the 48th Army take the lead in attacking the enemy?"

"I don't think so." Glebov shook his head and said, "According to the order of the headquarters, our front army troops will launch an attack on the enemy on the 20th of this month. Even so, many of our troops and technical equipment cannot be deployed. So General Koff is also a commander with rich command experience. How could he disobey the orders of his superiors and attack the German positions in advance without authorization? You must know that without our cooperation, they will attack the enemy alone, and they will definitely be attacked. Due to the tenacious resistance of the German army, the casualties of the troops will be extremely heavy."

  Batov stared at the map for a long time, but still didn't understand the reason for Sokov's unauthorized actions. He called the director of the communications corps and told the other party: "Comrade director of the communications corps, please help me connect to the headquarters of the 48th Army. I have something to ask General Sokov."

   Taking advantage of the time when the director of the communications corps was connected to the phone, Glebov whispered to Batov: "Comrade commander, should we report this matter to Comrade Marshal first to see if he knows the reason why the friendly army launched the attack without authorization."

"I don't think it's necessary." Batov shook his head and said, "Didn't you just say that even the air force was mobilized? If the command of the Front Army Command was not obtained, the authority of General Sokov would not be able to mobilize the air force at all." of."

   Glebov thought about it carefully, and it seemed that this was indeed the case. You must know that only the Front Army Command can mobilize the Air Force. Since the Air Force participated in today's battle, it means that this seemingly inexplicable battle should have been authorized by the Front Army Command.

   "Comrade Commander, the call has been connected." The director of communications said, "General Sokov is waiting to talk to you."

"Hello, General Sokov." Batov took the phone and said with a smile: "I heard that you are bombarding the German positions on the west bank, and even the air force is dispatched. I want to ask what is going on here?" What’s the matter, isn’t our front army’s attack time on the 20th, how could it be earlier?”

  When Sokov heard that Batov called him, he guessed what the other party wanted to know. After Batov finished speaking, he began to explain: "General Batov, the situation is as follows. According to our reconnaissance, the German army has deployed several artillery positions on the opposite bank. In order to reduce the casualties of our army during the forced crossing, we A trap was designed for the Germans to expose their artillery positions and then use our artillery and air force to destroy their artillery."

   "Can you tell me about the specific plan?"

"I used felled wood to build a fake artillery position by the river." Sokov said: "Then deployed a few self-propelled artillery in the fake position and opened fire on the German position on the opposite bank, causing an explosion to the Germans. Illusion, thinking that we really have an artillery position by the river, and then forcing them to use artillery to bombard our fake artillery position. After their shelling starts, our artillery fires to suppress them from a long distance. At the same time, I I made an agreement with Comrade Marshal that once we start an artillery battle with the German artillery, we can dispatch the air force to bomb the German artillery positions."

"Oh, so that's what happened." After figuring out what was going on, Batov said with a smile: "General Sukov, your strategy is good, and the Germans were really fooled. My observation post reported that there was a commotion on the other side. I believe that the German artillery in front of you must have suffered heavy losses, and when you force the crossing, the casualties of the troops will be greatly reduced."

  Just after explaining to Batov the reason for the firing, Rokossovsky also called. He said straight to the point: "Misha, General Vershinen reported to me that the air force he led had destroyed the German artillery position. I believe that the German artillery position will not be rebuilt for a long time. In addition, they After completing the task of bombing the artillery positions, they found a convoy coming from the second line of defense, and they bombarded the convoy indiscriminately, causing great losses to the enemy."

Sokov didn't expect that after bombing the German artillery positions, Vershinen would also hit the rabbits and severely damage a German convoy. He couldn't help laughing and said: "Comrade Marshal, I think General Vershinen This bombing will definitely leave a deep impression on the Germans and let them understand that the air supremacy on the battlefield is now in the hands of our army. If they want to move their troops forward, they can only do it at night."

"That's right, I thought so too." Rokossovsky said, "The actions you have taken today not only eliminated the biggest threat to you from the German army on the other side, but also made the Germans realize that without air supremacy, they We can’t mobilize troops as unscrupulously as before. It seems that our air force can play a greater role on the battlefield until today.”

"Yes, yes, Comrade Marshal." Sokov echoed: "You know, because the river is too wide, it is difficult for our artillery to see the fortifications on the other side clearly, so even if we prepare artillery fire before the attack, the effect we can achieve is the same. Very limited. But the air force is different, they can attack ground targets from a commanding height, destroy important German targets, and cover our troops to cross the Oder River smoothly."

   "Misha, when are you going to build a pontoon bridge on the East Oder River?" Rokossovsky asked.

"Comrade Marshal, now is not the time to build a bridge." Sokov replied: "Even if the artillery of the German army is severely damaged by our army, as long as they find that we are building a pontoon bridge on the river, they will definitely try their best to destroy it. So I decided that on the day of the offensive, as soon as my troops reach the shallow area between the two rivers, I can start to build the pontoon bridge, and then transport the technical equipment and more troops needed for the west bank."

   "Well, your idea is good." Rokossovsky nodded and said, "I'll just wait for the day when the offensive operation starts to see how you perform."

"Please rest assured, Comrade Marshal." Sokov assured Rokossovsky, "Even if our troops are not the first to cross the Oder River, our performance on the left bank will never let you down." .”

"Comrade Commander," as soon as Sokov put down the phone, Potapov walked in from the outside and reported to Sokov: "After the German artillery positions were attacked by our army, they have completely misfired. Destroyed, I have ordered our artillery to relocate to avoid German retaliation."

Although Sokov knew very well that the German army on the other side was at the end of their battles. After suffering such a big loss today, even if they were dissatisfied in their hearts, they had no ability to retaliate. Artillery strikes. But now that Potapov has arranged for the artillery to relocate, he can't pour cold water on the opponent, which will make people chill. On the contrary, he said with a smile: "General Potapov, you are doing the right thing. Even if Germany People can call in more artillery from other places in the middle of the night to retaliate against us, but they can't find any targets. Are you right?"

"You are right, Comrade Commander." Potapov said with a smile on his face: "Our defense zone is so large, even if the Germans replenished artillery in time, if they want to retaliate against us, they must find If the location of our artillery cannot be found, all their efforts will be in vain."

   "Chief of Staff," Sokov told Sidolin: "The fake artillery position on the bank must have been destroyed by artillery fire. You should arrange for people to clean it up as soon as possible."

  (end of this chapter)