As soon as Shapkin put down the phone, he shouted to his chief of staff: "Comrade chief of staff, call the three division commanders immediately and ask them to come to my headquarters immediately."
"Comrade Commander," the Chief of Staff waited for him to finish and then replied with a smile: "The three division commanders saw that you have never assigned them combat tasks, and they were more anxious than you." He pursed his lips toward the door, " Well, they are all chatting outside the door."
"Nonsense, it's just nonsense." Shapkin said to the Chief of Staff with some displeasure: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the three division commanders are here, why don't you let them in? It's such a cold day, let them stay outside, if I'm suffering from frostbite, who will direct the battle? Call them all in quickly."
The chief of staff nodded, walked to the door, opened the curtain, and said outside: "Comrade division commanders, the army commander invites you to come in!"
Within a moment, three officers wearing fur caps walked in from outside the headquarters. As they came in, there was a biting cold air, which made the chief of staff shiver and hurriedly lowered the curtain.
The three division commanders came to Shapkin, stood at attention, raised their hands in salute, and said: "Report to Comrade Commander,..."
"Okay, okay, no need to report." Shapkin interrupted them, turned around and ordered a staff officer beside him: "The three division commanders must have been frozen outside for so long. Let one of them come. A cup of hot tea.”
"Comrade Commander, there is no time for tea." Major General Yakunin, commander of the 21st Cavalry Division, stepped forward and said loudly: "Please give us a combat order for the 21st Cavalry Division."
Seeing Yakunin requesting a mission from Shapkin first, the other two division commanders also took a step forward and said in unison: "Comrade Commander, please give us a combat order for the 32nd Cavalry Division (55th Cavalry Division). "
Seeing the three division commanders competing for tasks in front of him, Shapkin quickly raised his hand and pressed down, saying to them: "Comrade division commanders, don't be anxious, I will arrange tasks for you all. Come with me." "Shapkin took the three division commanders to the lookout, pointed outside and said to them, "Have you seen the retreating enemies?"
Although the battlefield was one or two kilometers away, the three division commanders could clearly see the retreating enemy even without binoculars. They nodded in unison and replied in unison: "I saw it."
"Because there are too many hills and ravines ahead, which is not conducive to the deployment of armored forces, the Army Group Headquarters decided to let our cavalry troops attack. Now I will start assigning tasks to you." Shapkin led three division commanders to the map. In front of the table, he pointed to Yakunin and said: "General Yakunin, your 21st Cavalry Division will serve as the first echelon to pursue the fleeing enemies, and seize the enemy's position ahead of the infantry brothers. .”
"Yes!" Yakunin, who received the combat mission, agreed excitedly.
Shapkin nodded and continued to assign tasks to the other two division commanders: "Colonel Chudeshov, your 32nd Cavalry Division serves as the second echelon, following the first echelon in order to consolidate the positions captured."
"What about me, Comrade Commander." Seeing that Shapkin assigned combat tasks to the two division commanders, the remaining commander of the 55th Cavalry Division, Colonel Charenko, became a little anxious: "What is the task of our division?"
Shapkin stared at the opponent for a while, then said: "Your division will serve as the reserve force of the entire army."
"What, a reserve force for the army?!" When Chalenko saw Shapkin assigning the other two divisions to serve as the first and second echelons respectively, he had an ominous premonition in his heart. At this moment, he heard that Shapkin actually arranged for himself Being in the reserve team, I was not happy: "Comrade Commander, the commanders and fighters of our division have traveled a long way from distant Central Asia to come here to fight the Germans, not to be a reserve team. Please give us a new Assign a task?"
Seeing that Charenko was dissatisfied with his arrangements, Shapkin did not talk nonsense with him, but said to Yakunin and Chudesov: "You should rush back to the troops immediately and start attacking the enemy."
After the two division commanders agreed loudly, they turned and left the headquarters. After the two left, Shapkin turned to face Charenko and said: "Comrade Colonel, don't you know that you can only obey the orders of your superiors, but cannot bargain?"
"However, seeing other troops fighting the enemy while our division was doing nothing, I was worried that the commanders and soldiers would be emotional." Chalenko said unwillingly after being criticized: "After I go back, I don't know how to tell the soldiers Let them explain."
"I think you are the one with the emotions." Shapkin unceremoniously exposed the truth: "You think it's too embarrassing for you to be in the reserve team, so you use the soldiers in the division as a shield."
"Colonel Chalenko! I understand how you feel at the moment, and I sympathize with you, but orders from superiors must always be implemented." Seeing Chalenko's face flushed, the chief of staff walked to him and put a hand on his face. He put his arm on his shoulder and said with a smile: "This battle cannot be fought in a day or two. There are plenty of opportunities for the enemy to compete, so don't worry."
"The chief of staff is right." Shapkin sat down at the table, looked up at the unconvinced Chalenko, and continued: "If we put all our troops into battle, if the attack does not go smoothly, then we will Where should troops be mobilized to support the first and second echelons?"
After listening to the words of the Chief of Staff and Shapkin, Charenko felt that he seemed to have misunderstood the other party's meaning. The reason why his division served as a reserve was not to look down on himself, but for the sake of the next battle. Now that he knew he was wrong, Chalenko quickly admitted his mistake to Shapkin: "I'm sorry, Comrade Commander, I was wrong. I wrongly blamed you."
The commanders and fighters of the 21st Cavalry Division attacked very quickly. The galloping horses quickly passed over the infantry advancing in the snow, and rushed towards the fleeing German troops in the distance. Thousands of war horses ran wildly at the same time, and the sound of iron hooves trampling on the snow was like rolling thunder, making the ground tremble.
The German commander hiding in the fortifications saw the Soviet cavalry rolling in behind his soldiers. He suddenly felt chilled and frightened all over his body. He quickly shouted at the top of his lungs: "Machine guns, fire immediately at the Russian cavalry. Machine guns, fire immediately at..."
While he was shouting over and over again, a soldier next to him pointed at the soldiers who were heading towards the position and reminded him: "Mr. Captain, if you fire now, you will hit our own people."
"We can't care so much anymore." The commander shouted at the soldiers: "Once our position is broken through by the Russian cavalry, the entire defense line will inevitably be shaken. Fire, fire immediately!"
As the order was issued, more than a dozen machine guns on the German position began firing indiscriminately. The dense bullets immediately knocked down a large number of German soldiers who were escaping to the position. The remaining German soldiers hurriedly lay on the ground to avoid being killed by their own bullets and becoming unjust victims of unknown death.
Under the interception of German machine gun fire, some of the charging cavalrymen were constantly being knocked off their horses. From time to time, a war horse was shot and fell while running. While tripping other war horses, his owner was also involved in the surrounding iron hooves. Down. But even so, the Soviet cavalry in the high-speed impact did not slow down. They quickly approached the enemy's position.
Facing thousands of war horses rushing at high speed, the German army's dozen machine guns were obviously not enough. In just a minute or two, many cavalrymen jumped over the trenches and continued to rush forward. For those German soldiers who appeared within their reach, they would chop them down with a knife and knock them to the ground. Some cavalrymen who lost their horses rushed towards the enemy's trenches with their carbines in hand. They first threw grenades into the trenches. After hearing the explosion, they jumped into the trenches before the smoke cleared and started close combat and hand-to-hand combat with the German soldiers inside.
The German commander in the rear position saw that the position was broken through by the Soviet cavalry. Worried about the collapse of the entire defense line, he quickly ordered the tank battalion to dispatch in an attempt to use tanks to deal with the cavalry who only had light weapons. Unexpectedly, they forgot that the Soviet attack planes were still lingering in the air. In addition to attacking ground fortifications, they also had another mission, which was to destroy German tanks and reduce the pressure on the ground troops' attack.
The dispatched tanks were attacked by attack aircraft not far from their positions. More than thirty attack aircraft surrounded a dozen tanks that left the position and an equal number of armored vehicles following behind. They bombed and strafed. It only took a few minutes to kill the armored force that left the defensive position without permission.
…………
"The 4th Mechanized Army broke through the enemy's defense line!"
"The 13th Tank Corps opened a breach in the enemy's defense line!"
"General Shapkin's 4th Cavalry Corps successfully broke through the two lines of German defense and is now continuing to advance north!"
"..."
Sidorin took the message forwarded to Golikov from the front army headquarters and read aloud a series of results achieved by the attacking troops on the south side of the city. Everyone present couldn't help but beam with joy when they heard the battle report he read.
After Golikov waited for Sidorin to finish reading, he turned to Sokov and asked: "Colonel Sokov, do you think the enemy will realize that they are in danger after suffering a heavy blow from our army?"
"Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army, I think the enemy may have realized this problem." Sokov asked Golikov when he saw it. He felt that it was necessary to remind the other party that the enemy might want to escape, and he must find a way to hold the enemy back so that they can escape. Unable to successfully withdraw from the city: "They may withdraw their troops from the city after dark."
"Withdraw the troops at night?" Regarding Sokov's statement, Golikov expressed doubts: "Comrade Colonel, have you ever thought about mobilizing troops at night, especially in areas where the two sides' fronts are intertwined? It is not an easy task to withdraw so many troops."
"Comrade Deputy Commander of the Front Army," Seeing that Golikov seemed to disagree with his views, Sokov continued: "I think you should call Commander Chuikov and ask all units to closely monitor the enemy's movements. trends and be ready to attack.”
"What, an attack?" Golikov couldn't help but raise his eyebrows when he heard this, and then asked: "Do you think those troops who stick to the factory still have the ability to fight back against the enemy?"
"Yes, the troops who defended the factory have suffered serious attrition after a long period of fighting." Sokov explained: "The attack I am talking about is just to allow these troops to take advantage of the night to seize some forward positions and give them to The enemy creates the illusion that we will attack from the rear at any time. In this way, their retreat plan will change, and we will have the opportunity to leave a large number of enemies in the city so that the main force of the counterattack can surround them. "
After listening to Sokov's suggestion, Golikov did not express his position, but walked back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back. Sokov knew that Golikov was considering his plan, so he did not disturb him, but quietly watched him walking back and forth in front of him.
After an unknown amount of time, Golikov finally stopped, turned around and said to Sokov: "Colonel Sokov, I think what you said makes sense. However, I have no right to give orders to Chuikov. This matter needs to be reported to Only the front army headquarters will do."
While Golikov was on the phone to the front army headquarters, Sokov called Belkin on the side and asked straight to the point: "Comrade Political Commissar, how is the situation there? Is the enemy still attacking?"
"No, the enemies all retreated to their positions after we repelled them two hours ago, and there has been no movement until now." Belkin reported on the phone: "I really don't know what happened. "
"Comrade Political Commissar, let me tell you some good news first." Sokov considered that the news of the main force's successful counterattack on the south side of the city could boost the morale of the troops standing at the barricade factory, so he told him what he knew Some good news was told to Belkin in detail.
After hearing this, Belkin couldn't help but be overjoyed and said repeatedly: "Great, this is really great. Misha, it seems that the enemy can't hold on for long."
"According to my judgment, the enemy may want to escape." Sokov continued: "The task of your regiment is to send people to figure out the enemy's movements after dark, and then appropriately seize some forward positions to contain the enemy. , making them afraid to withdraw from the factory boldly."
"No, the enemies all retreated to their positions after we were repulsed two hours ago, and there has been no movement until now." Belkin reported on the phone: "I really don't know what happened. "
"Comrade Political Commissar, let me tell you some good news first." Sokov considered that the news of the main force's successful counterattack on the south side of the city could boost the morale of the troops standing at the barricade factory, so he told him what he knew Some good news was told to Belkin in detail.
After hearing this, Belkin couldn't help but be overjoyed and said repeatedly: "Great, this is really great. Misha, it seems that the enemy can't hold on for long."
"According to my judgment, the enemy may want to escape." Sokov continued: "The task of your regiment is to send people to figure out the enemy's movements after dark, and then appropriately seize some forward positions to contain the enemy. , making them afraid to withdraw from the factory boldly."
