Chapter 2248

  When the chief of staff conveyed Mantefil's order, the German artillery deployed on the second line of defense fired, flew over the position full of gunpowder smoke and fire, and landed in the area where the 65th Army landed.

  The sudden shelling caused confusion to the landing Soviet troops. The commanders on the shore yelled at the top of their voices, telling the soldiers who had landed to take cover on the spot to prevent being killed by the flying shrapnel; at the same time, they were waving their hands to let the ships that had unloaded the soldiers and supplies leave to avoid being shot by the German artillery. hit.

   Facing the shelling of the German army, the ships that unloaded the soldiers and supplies quickly rowed to the middle of the West Oder River to avoid the intensive shelling of the Germans. As for the few ships, although the soldiers had already disembarked, the supplies needed by the troops were still piled up on the ships. The soldiers rowing regardless of their own safety, braved the enemy's artillery fire and continued to unload the supplies on board.

  Batov, who was staying at the headquarters, heard that his landing force was suddenly attacked by German artillery fire, and quickly ordered the artillery deployed in the shallows to fire and suppress the German artillery positions.

But after the phone call, Chief of Staff Glebov said to him with a wry smile: "Comrade Commander, the situation is not very good. The German artillery shells are coming from the second line of defense. They can hit our landing troops. But the artillery we deployed on the shoal, because of the range problem, faced the enemy's intensive artillery fire, they could only stare blankly, unable to provide the necessary cover for our landing troops."

   "Damn, how could this happen." Batov was so angry that he punched the table fiercely, "In this way, our soldiers can only be beaten in vain."

"No way." Glebov pointed to the map and said to Batov: "Comrade commander, you see. The enemy's artillery positions are here on their second line of defense. The artillery fire has just reached our landing point, and the deployment The artillery positions in the shallows are still a few kilometers away from the west bank, and the enemy's artillery positions cannot be hit at all."

   "Damn, hate, it's really hateful." Batov knew that Glebov was telling the truth. The German artillery was deployed outside the range of its own artillery, and it was impossible to suppress the enemy's artillery. If you want to get rid of the situation where the troops are passively beaten, you should immediately ask Rokossovsky for help and ask him to dispatch the air force to bomb the German artillery positions on the second line of defense, thereby eliminating the threat of German artillery to the landing troops. He picked up the phone on the table: "I'm Batov, pick me up at the Front Army Command."

  After the call was connected, Batov recognized that the person answering the phone was Bogolyubov, and quickly said: "Comrade Chief of Staff, my landing force suffered heavy German artillery on the west bank of the Oder River, causing certain casualties."

   "Where is the specific position?" Bogolyubov said: "I will order the artillery to suppress the enemy's artillery positions."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, suppression with artillery fire will not be effective, because the enemy is very cunning, and artillery deployed on the second line of defense bombards us, and because of the range, our artillery has nothing to do with them. , so I can only ask the Front Army Command for help."

   "Since your artillery can't hit the enemy's artillery positions," Bogolyubov said helplessly, "Then our artillery can't even hit them. Can we help you?"

"Yes." Batov said: "Although our artillery cannot hit the enemy's artillery positions because of the range, our air force can. Not to mention that the German army is more than ten or twenty kilometers away, even if it is two hundred kilometers away. Kilometers away, as long as our air force is dispatched, the enemy's artillery positions can be blown to pieces."

   Regarding Batov's request, Bogolyubov was quite helpless: "Our air force is already exhausted after a day and night of bombing. How can we send them out again at this time?"

   "Comrade Chief of Staff, what happened?" Rokossovsky, who had just finished the call, saw Bogolyubov's helpless face, and asked curiously, "Who are you talking to?"

   "General Batov," Bogolyubov replied.

   "Oh, so it's Batov." Rokossovsky asked with a smile, "Has his troops landed on the West Bank?"

"Yes, Comrade Marshal, their troops have landed on the west bank." After Bogolyubov answered this question, before Rokossovsky was happy, he continued: "But the troops on the west bank , is currently being bombarded by the Germans."

   "What, the landing force was shelled by the German army?" Rokossovsky asked in surprise: "Then why didn't our artillery carry out artillery suppression?"

"There is no way to suppress it." Bogolyubov quickly explained to Rokossovsky: "The German artillery that fired on the landing force was located in their second line of defense, and it was beyond the coverage of our artillery fire. The landing force can only be beaten passively, but cannot counterattack in time."

After figuring out what was going on, Rokossovsky sternly said, "Since our artillery can't hit the enemy, we should find a way to change it. Why don't you let General Vershinin dispatch the air force, right? The German artillery positions were bombarded."

"Comrade Marshal, General Batov also suggested that the air force bomb the German artillery positions." Bogolyubov said: "But I consider that our air force has bombed the German positions day and night, and the pilots have long been tired. I am exhausted, so it may not be appropriate for them to go on a mission at this moment."

"There is nothing inappropriate." Rokossovsky waved his hand and said: "Our air force should be on standby at any time, and it can immediately go into battle as soon as it receives a battle warning. You will give General Vershinen Make a phone call and ask him to dispatch a bomber fleet to carry out a violent bombing of the German artillery positions on the second line of defense, and it must be completely destroyed to ensure that our commanders and fighters can gain a firm foothold in the west bank landing field."

"Okay, Comrade Commander. I'll call the Air Force right away." After Bogolyubov finished speaking, he said to Batov on the other end of the microphone: "General Batov, you heard everything, Marshal Comrade has given me an order to contact General Vershinen immediately and ask him to send bombers to bomb the German artillery positions."

   "Comrade Chief of Staff, thank you for your kindness." Batov said: "As long as the Air Force can destroy the German artillery positions, then my troops can successfully complete the landing operation."

  What happened to Batov, Sokov learned about it through the observation post. He immediately asked Sidolin: "Comrade Chief of Staff, how is the situation of our landing force, has it been discovered by the Germans?"

   "No, Comrade Commander." Sidolin replied: "Because the smoke released by our artillery blocked the German army's vision, they did not notice the river crossing operation carried out by our army."

"Well, good job." Sokov nodded, and said approvingly: "Let the soldiers be quiet and don't make too much noise, especially when you land on the west bank, don't shout urah, if you are caught The Germans found out, and the enemy will definitely block us with artillery fire, and I am afraid that they will cause us a lot of casualties."

   "Don't worry, Comrade Commander, we understand what you said." Sidolin said: "Until we gain a firm foothold on the West Bank, our commanders and fighters will keep absolutely quiet so as not to be discovered by the Germans."

   In this way, the 120th Guards Division of the 48th Army quietly boarded the west bank, and took advantage of the favorable opportunity when the shelling continued to quickly touch the German position. At this moment, the German officers and soldiers were all huddled in the bunkers and anti-battery holes to avoid the shelling, and they didn't realize that there was a huge army coming towards their positions.

  The commanders and fighters of the Guards performed very clearly in the battle to occupy the German positions. As long as they touched the door of the German shelter, they would throw a grenade in, and after a loud "boom", the soldiers rushed in to fill up their guns. The anti-blasting hole is also handled in the same way.

Poor German officers and soldiers, when they discovered that the Soviet army was bombing and shelling them, their first reaction was to hide in the dug shelter or air-raid shelter. They never thought that the Soviet army would be so ignorant of martial arts. In the end, you actually started stealing the tower. As a result, most of the German officers and soldiers were killed by grenades thrown from outside or shot to death before they could figure out what was going on.

When the bombardment of the front army ended, the commanders and fighters of the 120th Guards Division had successfully occupied several trenches of the German army. It's a bit small, but as a starting point for the troops to attack, it's still pretty good overall.

Major General Nikitin, who landed on the west bank with his troops, turned his head and said to the radio operator behind him while he was on the west bank: "Radio operator, report to the headquarters that the 120th Guards Division has cleared the riverside position." The enemy has occupied a more favorable starting position for the attack."

Sokov, who was directing the battle at the headquarters, suddenly heard the operator next to him report: "Comrade Commander, General Nikitin is honored to report to you that his 120th Guards Division has successfully landed on the west bank. And according to your arrangement, sneaked into the German positions quietly, cleared some of the enemies, and established a landing field with a width of 3 kilometers and a depth of 500 meters."

"Comrade Commander, this General Nikitin has done a good job." After listening to the operator's report, Sidolin said with a smile on his face: "If this trend continues, maybe we will be able to arrive before dark." The location of the German command."

"Comrade Chief of Staff, don't underestimate the enemy." Sokov reminded Sidolin: "The reason why the 120th Guards Division was able to establish a landing field so easily is mainly because the artillery cooperated well. The smoke bombs they fired successfully The ground blocked the view of the German observation post so that they could not see that our army was crossing the river. By the way, how is the situation of the 109th Infantry Division, when can they start crossing the river?"

   "I'm afraid we have to wait a little longer," Sidolin said with a wry smile, "The ships are still on the west bank, and it will take a long time to return."

   "Now that our army has established a firm foothold on the west bank, we can proceed with the construction of the pontoon bridge."

   "Okay, Comrade Commander." Sidolin nodded and said, "I will immediately get in touch with the chief engineer and ask him to direct the engineer to start building the bridge."

   "Let them hurry up." Sokov said to Sidolin: "In order to consolidate our victory, we need to transport more soldiers and technical equipment in the shortest possible time to meet the possible German counterattack."

   While Sidolin was calling the director of the engineering corps, Sokov picked up the phone and connected to the Front Army Command, intending to tell Rokossovsky the good news.

  After the call was connected, a strange voice came from inside and asked coldly: "This is the headquarters of the Front Army. Where are you?"

   "I am Sokov, Commander of the 48th Army Group. I have an urgent matter to find Comrade Marshal."

  When the other party heard that the caller was Sokov, he immediately changed his tone: "So it's General Sokov, please wait a moment, and I will ask Comrade Marshal to answer the phone immediately."

  After a short wait, Sokov heard Rokossovsky's voice from the receiver: "Misha, I'm Rokossovsky, what's the matter?"

"Comrade Marshal," Sokov said quite proudly, "I am honored to report to you that my troops have successfully landed on the west bank, cleared the enemy, and established a landing field three kilometers wide and five hundred meters deep. .”

"What, what did you say?" Rokossovsky couldn't believe his ears. A few minutes ago, Batov called himself again, saying that the landing troops had suffered five casualties under enemy fire. One-third, I am afraid that it will take a period of rest before continuing to attack. But now he is not optimistic about Sokov at all, and he actually called himself directly, saying that a landing site has been established on the West Bank, which made him feel unbelievable: "You really established a landing site?"

"Yes, Comrade Marshal." After giving the other party an affirmative answer, Sokov continued: "The current landing field is a bit too small. If too many troops are concentrated, once they are bombarded by the German army, it may cause serious damage. losses. Therefore, I am arranging engineers to erect pontoon bridges, preparing to transport tanks and artillery to the opposite bank first, to assist our infantry to expand the results of the battle."

"Wait a minute, Misha." Before Sokov could finish, Rokossovsky interrupted him: "You haven't told me how you got to the west bank. Are you crossing the river?" Wasn't it intercepted by the German army?"

"No, Comrade Marshal. My troops were not intercepted by the Germans when they crossed the river." Seeing that Rokossovsky was eager to know the truth about the landing, Sokov raised General Potapov and fired smoke to the opposite bank They used thick smoke to block the view of the German observation post, so that they could not detect the troops' crossing operation, so they successfully boarded the west bank of the Oder River with zero casualties. Finally, he said: "In order to prevent the target from being exposed, before the troops set off, I repeatedly told them not to make too much noise when crossing the river, so as not to be discovered by the enemy on the other side and cause unnecessary casualties. Facts have proved that my advice It was effective, because the artillery shelling by the Front Army was still going on, and the German observation posts on the West Bank became blind and deaf, and they didn't notice our actions at all, so our landing operations were not obstructed."

  (end of this chapter)