Burning Moscow

Less than two hours after I gave Tavart Kiradze the order to assemble the troops, he called me and reported to me: "Comrade Commander, the troops are assembled and ready to go."

When Zhukov heard the news, he couldn’t help but said with emotion: “I really can’t see it. This Tavart Kiradze is quite capable. I thought he would have to complete the assembly. It would take at least five hours. I didn’t expect two In less than an hour, the troops were ready to go. Whenever I had the opportunity to see him, I would like to ask him how he trained the troops, so that he could complete the assembly of the troops in such a short period of time."

Seeing Zhukov’s full praise for Ta*** Kiraze, I smiled bitterly on the side, and said to my heart: The reason why the 51st Guards Division was assembled so quickly is because they went into battle at the latest. , Almost before any fierce battle, Kharkov was recovered by us. The main force of the division is not dispersed, so the assembly speed is naturally fast.

After Zhukov praised Tavart Kiradze, he said to Kravchenko: "Comrade General wants to let your tank corps all start at this moment. It may not be possible. So, you first send a tank brigade to follow the guards. In the operation of the 51st Division, in order to facilitate the troops to be able to enter the battle at any time, you will distribute the tank brigade to the infantry regiments in battalions."

I was accustomed to the concentrated use of tank troops, and suddenly heard Zhukov say this, and I was stunned for a moment. But after thinking about it, this is not bad. Each infantry regiment equipped with a tank battalion is a separate combat group. Once you encounter the Germans, you can immediately go into battle, entangle them, and wait for the troops behind to arrive, then wipe out the enemy.

Since the 51st Guards Division completed the assembly ahead of schedule, our departure time was also advanced to five in the afternoon. In Zhukov's words, while it was still early, let the troops advance to Chuhuyev quickly, and strive to seize the city as soon as possible, and use it as the starting point of our offensive.

The road ahead was the first echelon formed by the 309th Regiment of Lieutenant Colonel Lukin and the First Tank Battalion. The guard battalion led by Basmanov and I acted together with the second echelon. According to the plan, Tawart Kiradze and his military commander should be in the third echelon. Who knew that he saw that I was in the second echelon, so he temporarily changed his mind, let his chief of staff stay behind and walk with me by himself.

As the jeep was driving on the road, Tawart Kiradze asked me carefully: "Comrade Commander, I heard that we are going south to cooperate with the Southwest Front Army?"

"That's right." To his question, I immediately answered affirmatively, and then asked in the opposite direction: "Did Colonel Bezikov not clearly explain the reason for mobilizing you when he explained the problem to you?"

"That's clear." Tavart Kiradze nodded and replied: "The chief of staff said that the 51st Guards Division, as the forefront of the whole army, will first capture Chuhuyev so that our troops have a foothold. ."

"Now that the mission is clear, let's carry it out!" I said in an official tone: "After the capture of Chuhuyev, it can be used as a camp and temporary barracks for the troops. This will help restore the physical strength of our commanders and maintain the troops. Fighting power is of great benefit."

"Understand, understand." Tawart Kirazzi said with a smile: "Before the Azi forces set off, I had asked Lieutenant Colonel Lukin to send out scouts to detect the enemy in front. He is your old subordinate, I believe. As an avant-garde, his troops will surely achieve unexpected results."

I remembered that two-thirds of the commanders in the Lukin regiment were recruits who were recruited only after the German army was repelled from Kursk. I hurriedly asked: “Has the recruits recruited to the 309th regiment formed combat effectiveness now? "

"Don't worry, Comrade Commander." Tawart Kiradze said triumphantly: "I don't know how Lieutenant Colonel Lukin trained. The new recruits have been under his hand for only one week, and their skills and tactics are comparable to those of veterans in other regiments. The level was about the same. Especially in the early morning of the offensive, the third battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Lukin broke through the German defense line with only two hundred men, rushed into their regiment command post, and killed the regiment commander."

"Good job." After listening to Tavart Kiradze's report, I couldn't help but admire Lukin today. "What is the defensive strength of the German regiment-level command? With double the strength, it is impossible to attack at all. I did not expect Lu Jin to use only two companies to complete the task that at least one regiment could complete."

We were talking, passing a burned village out the window of the car. Seeing the ruined walls of the village and the dark trees around it, I can't help but feel itchy. I pointed out the window with my finger and said to Ta*** Kiraze: "Comrade General, take a good look at the village outside. The Germans have owed us a blood debt again."

Tawart Kiradze turned his head and glanced outside the village, then nodded vigorously, and said, "Comrade Commander, you can rest assured that we will get back this blood debt sooner or later with the benefit."

After our car drove forward for a while, it suddenly stopped. Hearing the sudden sound of guns in front of me, I knew that Lukin’s avant-garde troops had engaged with the Germans. At this moment, a staff officer got out of the communication car in front, with a telegram in his hand, ran to my car quickly, raised his hand in salute and handed it to me, and at the same time reported: "Comrade Commander, the telegram was sent by Lieutenant Colonel Lu Jin, commander of the 309th regiment. He said that he had encountered the enemy ahead and the troops were fighting fiercely with the enemy."

I took the telegram and nodded to the staff. Then I looked at the content of the telegram and found that it was almost the same as what the staff said, so I handed it to Tavart Kiradze and said optimistically: "Since I am in the city. If we encounter the German army, then the enemy must not have any strong fortifications. As long as our tank rushes in front, the enemy will soon be defeated."

"A tank charge can destroy the enemy?" Hearing my confident statement, Tawart Kiradze asked suspiciously: "Comrade Commander, you must know that many German troops broke through during the day. Maybe there are thousands of Germans in the city. Can the enemy be beaten down by just two or three thousand guards and a few tanks? Anyway, I don’t believe this will happen."

Hearing his suspicion, I didn’t give much introduction, I just smiled faintly, and then said: “Comrade General, as for the battle between Lieutenant Colonel Lukin’s troops and the German troops, I think we have a 70% chance of winning. If you don’t believe me, Just wait and see the result of the battle for a while!"

Although my jeep and trucks carrying guard battalions came to a halt, the infantry regiment of the 51st Guards Division and the tanks of the tank brigade were still advancing quickly along the dirt road, ready to go to reinforce the army. Friendly troops outside Chuhuyev.

I was sitting in the jeep, listening calmly to the sound of guns coming from the front, thinking to myself that if Lukin’s troops, with the cooperation of the tank battalion, could not even defeat the Germans they encountered, it would really disappoint me. Up. I leaned back, resting my head on the back of my chair, and closed my eyes to rest, but Tavart Kiradze was restless, fearing that his troops would suffer a great loss. After all, the German army was just kicked out of Kharkov by us, and no one knows where their main force has gone. If the enemy retreats to Chuhuyev, it can only blame us for bad luck, then the battle now going on is purely a pebble attack. So what I have to consider is not how to advance south, but how to safely withdraw to Kharkov.

But the situation was obviously not as bad as I thought. After about half an hour, the sound of guns in front suddenly became thinner. This change made me feel as embarrassed as Tavart Kiradze. My eyes kept glancing at the communication car parked in front of me, and I was eagerly hoping that someone could come out quickly and tell the battle ahead. I.

But after waiting for a long time, I didn't see anyone coming in or out. Unexpectedly, at this time, Tawart Kiradze became a lot calmer. He smiled and said to me: "Comrade Commander, it seems that you guessed it correctly. Our troops won!"

"Our troops won?!" I was curious about the judgment he made. He didn't sit anywhere in the car like me, and didn't receive any information in the middle. How could he know? Unless he has clairvoyance or tailwind ears, how can he know that my family has won? "On what basis did you make such a judgment?"

He pointed his finger at the window and drove past the trucks and tanks from time to time, and said with a smile: "Look, if the battle ahead is unfavorable, the tanks may give way to the trucks and let them rush to the front to reinforce. But now the formation of the troops No changes have taken place, and the original speed has been maintained. This proves that we have won the battle ahead."

I listened to Tawart Kiradze’s analysis, and felt that it was reasonable, so I nodded and said: “This Lieutenant Colonel Lukin also, what's the situation in the front, even if you don’t send a telegram, you must send someone to report it. Let us know it in our hearts. The result is good now. There is no news at all, which makes us two worry here."

I was considering whether to get off the car and go to the communication car in front to ask if there is a telegram from Lu Jinfa. As soon as I put my hand on the handle, before we had time to push the door, we saw a three-wheeled motorcycle in the distance, driving towards us against the marching queue. Seeing this motorcycle that suddenly appeared, the rock hanging in my heart fell to the ground. I took my hand back and said softly, "Finally!"

"Finally here!" Tavalt Kiradze exclaimed joyfully almost at the same time I was speaking.

A few minutes later, the motorcycle stopped next to us. I pushed open the door and asked the officer who had just emerged from the sidecar: "Hey, Comrade Commander, did Lieutenant Colonel Lukin send you?"

The officer straightened his body and reported to me: "Yes, Comrade Commander, it was Lieutenant Colonel Lu Jin who sent me to report the battle ahead." After speaking, he took out a few pieces of paper from his briefcase and handed it to me. I.

"Hurry up and show it to me." I couldn't wait to take the piece of paper from his hand and looked at it carefully.

I saw Lu Jin described in detail how they found the enemy and how they exchanged fire with the enemy. Lu Jin wrote the process very long and very informative. It took me five minutes to read the above. After passing the report in my hand to Tawart Kiradze, I looked up and asked the officer standing in front of me: "Comrade Commander, your regiment commander, Lieutenant Colonel Lukin, where is now?"

"After the enemies outside the city were repelled by us, they fled into the city, and the regiment commander rushed into the city with his troops."

"Is the enemy's resistance stubborn?" Tawart Kirazzi looked at the report and asked without looking up: "Is it collapsed at the touch of a touch or after resistance, did he retreat to the city in an organized manner?"

The officer glanced at his superior, and quickly straightened his body and reported: "Report to Comrade Commander that when the first battalion first engaged in fighting with the enemy, the enemy behaved very tenaciously and suppressed our offensive forces with machine gun fire. Unable to move forward. But when the tanks of the tank battalion appeared, the enemy’s resistance weakened.” Although the content of his report was written in detail in Lukin’s report, the officer saw what we wanted to hear. , He continued to say, "Comrade commander seized this favorable opportunity to once again organize troops to attack the enemy’s position. The enemy’s hastily constructed position, the division was vulnerable before our attack. Soon, we were in tanks. Under the cover of, they broke through the German defense line from many places. The enemy could not resist it. UU Reading www.uukanshu.com fled into the city with quick legs and feet, while those who ran slowly put down their weapons and surrendered to us. ."

Since Lu Jin’s report did not mention the results they achieved, I heard this and couldn’t help but ask: "Comrade Commander, have the results of your regiment been counted?"

The officer shook his head and said regretfully: "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, because the battle has been going on, we haven't had time to count the specific results." It may be that seeing the disappointed expression on my face, he added quickly." Although there is no accurate data, according to my observations, more than 20 tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed by the German army. There were more than 50 motorcycles and more than 300 soldiers. Nowadays, there are burning tanks, armored vehicles and motorcycles everywhere on the road. The wreckage of the car, as well as the corpses of German soldiers."

I am still very satisfied with such a result. I glanced at Tawart Kiradze, and then said to him, "Comrade General, should you order the troops behind to speed up their march, so that our troops can quickly control the entire Chuhuyev?"

"Yes, Comrade Commander, you are right." Tavart Kiradze pushed open the door on his side. After jumping down, he turned to me and said, "I'll go to the communication car. Give orders to the heads of the regiments to speed up their march and join forces with Lieutenant Colonel Lukin as soon as possible.” (To be continued.)