Sokov was sitting on a cot and was taking off his boots when Lunev, who was sitting not far away, asked with concern: "Comrade Commander, is Asya back with you?"
"No." Sokov, who was taking off his boots, heard Lunev's question and quickly put his feet back on the ground, shaking his head and said: "Although she followed the troops of the 182nd Division to the defense area, due to the fierce fighting , I never had the chance to see her.”
Knowing that Sokov had not had time to meet Asya due to the fierce fighting, Lunev couldn't help but worry: "Comrade Commander, if that's the case, then why don't you let her come back with you? Let her grow up." Is it appropriate to spend time in a dangerous place?”
"Don't worry, Comrade Military Commissar." Sokov smiled and said to Lunev: "It is difficult to have any large-scale battles in our defense zone, otherwise I would not return to the headquarters at this time."
Hearing what Sokov said, Lunev couldn't help but raise his eyebrows and asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, do you know any gossip?"
Since Luniev took the initiative to ask, and there was no one idle in the headquarters, Sokov planned to tell his two deputies about the current situation so that they would be well aware of it. He stood up, walked to the table, sat down, and invited the two of them to come and sit together: "Come here, I will introduce you to the current situation."
Samyko and Luniev knew that Sokov would definitely tell them some inside information, so they couldn't wait to sit down at the table. "Comrade Commander, tell me quickly," Sameko urged as soon as he sat down: "How will the situation develop next?"
After Sokov briefly introduced the information he got from Zhukov to the two, he pointed to the map on the table and continued: "The northern front of Kursk is due to General Rokossovsky's troops. The active attack launched has seriously threatened the retreat of Model 9th Army. If the Germans do not want another Stalingrad to appear, they will inevitably stop their offensive on the northern front and switch to defense on the spot. Block our attack on the Orel salient.
As for the southern front, according to my analysis, there is a high probability that the reserve team in Manstein's hands will be transferred to other battlefields. In other words, even if the enemy continues to maintain their offensive on the southern front, all they can rely on are their original forces. "
"If the enemies on the southern front can only rely on their existing troops to fight, then the pressure on the area defended by our group army will be greatly reduced." Listening to Sokov's words, Samyko's face showed a smile Surprised expression: "That is to say, we can even take the initiative to launch counterattacks against the enemy in certain areas."
"Yes, judging from the current situation, Manstein will concentrate his main force outside Prokhorovka and try to annihilate our troops there." Sokov introduced to the two people: "So As a result, he only has the incomplete 6th and 19th Armored Divisions in our defense area. As long as General Malankin's Guards Division can help us contain the 19th Armored Division, then we can choose any Lot, to launch a counterattack against the Germans.”
But after hearing this, Lunev said with a worried look: "Comrade Commander, if we launch a counterattack against the enemy at this moment, will Manstein dispatch troops from outside Prokhorovka to attack our defense area?" Woolen cloth?"
"Comrade Military Commissar, you don't have to worry about this." In response to Lunev's concerns, Samyko explained to him: "Now Manstein's main force is fighting fiercely with our army outside Prokhorovka. He will not Dare to dispatch troops and leave easily, otherwise the remaining troops may not be able to stop our army's counterattack."
After listening to Samyko's explanation, Lunev had a relaxed expression on his face. After staring at the map for a while, he looked up at Sokov and asked: "Comrade Commander, where do you plan to be?" What if the enemy launches an active attack?"
"The enemy is still very strong today. This can be seen from the fierce battle outside Prokhorovka." Sokov stared at the map in front of him and said: "If we attack the enemy who gathered outside Prokhorovka, If the enemy launches an attack, even if they win, they will probably pay a huge price. And when they launch a counterattack in the defense area of the 188th Division, since the German troops in front of them have switched to defense, they may not be able to eat them in a short time. Once Manstein Seeing that the back route is threatened, they will definitely mobilize troops from other places at all costs and launch a joint attack on us. Maybe in the end of the fight, the enemy will not be eliminated, but we will pay a lot of casualties. This kind of equipment We can’t do business.”
"Then we can't do nothing." Lunev asked cautiously: "If our superiors see that we have so many troops but stay near the enemy and do nothing, they will definitely blame us."
"I just said that we will not take the initiative to attack the enemy for the time being." Sokov said with a smile: "We do not attack the enemy, but we can cut off their transportation lines, as long as the enemy's fuel and ammunition cannot be transported to Prokhorovka City. In addition, the main force of the German army attacking there will soon turn their tanks and artillery into a pile of scrap metal due to lack of ammunition and fuel. In this case, all they can do is to blow up or After throwing away these equipment, choose to retreat without hesitation."
…………
When Sokov briefed his two deputies on the next development of the situation in the Kursk region at his headquarters, the reconnaissance force sent by Vatutin also obtained useful intelligence.
Lieutenant Eskel, the leader of the reconnaissance team, brought a dozen scouts to the vicinity of the German reserve station. He unexpectedly discovered that the camp in the distance was brightly lit, and the troops inside seemed to be undergoing intense mobilization.
Lieutenant Eskel's first thought was that the enemy must be preparing to move in the direction of Prokhorovka. He quickly called the radio operator and told the other party: "Immediately get in touch with the reconnaissance office of the front army headquarters and tell them that we have discovered that troops are mobilizing in the 24th Armored Corps' garrison. From a long distance, you can hear tanks and The roar of a self-propelled gun engine.”
Five minutes after the telegram was sent, the operator received a reply from the intelligence office: "Quickly figure out where the enemy is going."
After Lieutenant Eskel received the call back, he immediately called a sergeant and told him: "Sergeant, take two soldiers and quietly approach the enemy's camp, try to capture a prisoner, and find out their trend."
The sergeant agreed, led the two soldiers out of the hiding place, and quietly headed towards the enemy's camp, preparing to capture a prisoner and find out the enemy's movements.
After waiting for almost an hour, the sergeant and two soldiers carried an officer whose hands and feet were tied back to the hiding place of Eskel and others. The sergeant excitedly reported to Eskel: "Comrade Lieutenant, we captured a German second lieutenant and seized a large briefcase he was carrying."
Hearing the sergeant say that a briefcase had been seized, Eskel's eyes lit up. He knew that the German officer carrying the briefcase, no matter how low his rank, still had a lot of important information. He quickly called the translator and told the other party: "Translate my words to this German and ask him his name, rank and position!"
After the translator finished translating what Eskel said to the German officer, he pulled out the rag stuffed in the officer's mouth. After the officer coughed violently several times, he began to answer: "My name is Gold, I have the rank of second lieutenant, and I am the combat staff officer of the 23rd Armored Division."
"It turns out he's the combat staff officer." Eskel took out a stack of documents from his briefcase. After flipping through them for a while, he found that they were all in Russian. He couldn't understand them at all, so he asked Gold: "What's this?" What’s written on the document?”
Seeing those documents and being held by the translator, Gold hesitated for a moment, and then replied: "This is the transfer order issued by Marshal Manstein."
"The transfer order issued by Manstein?" Eskel asked curiously: "What is written on it?"
"Order us to load the trucks overnight and prepare to be transferred to the west." Although Gold is a combat staff officer, because his level is too low, he has no access to many top-secret contents, so the questions he answered are, It also seems vague.
"West?" Eskel continued to ask: "Where are you going to be transferred to the west?"
"I don't know, Mr. Lieutenant." Gold replied in a moderate tone: "The superior's order didn't say, I don't know what the final destination is."
"Did you see anything?" Seeing that Gold was unwilling to say anything, Eskel turned and asked the translator who was flipping through the documents: "Did it say where they should be transferred?"
"Comrade Lieutenant," the translator quickly raised his head and said, "The order says to have them rush to the west train station to board the train, and then transport them to the west."
"It looks like we have to go to the train station to the west to see if the enemies are really gathering in that direction."
In this way, in order to find out the true movements of the German army, Eskel led his reconnaissance team and quietly came to the train station in the west. In order to prevent being discovered by the enemy, they hid on a small hill two or three kilometers away from the station. Eskel found a position with a good view, raised his telescope and looked in the direction of the station.
Through the telescope, he could clearly see groups of tanks and armored vehicles driving to and stopping beside the railway outside the station. And some tanks that arrived earlier are gradually getting on the flatbed trucks. After looking through the telescope for a while, he found that more and more enemies were gathering in this direction. It seemed that what the prisoners said was true. The troops of the 24th Armored Corps were indeed preparing to move to the west.
With the prisoners' confessions and seeing the enemy's tanks and armored vehicles loading one after another, Eskel realized that the enemy might really move to the west, so he once again ordered the operator: "Send a report to the Intelligence Department, and that's it." It is said that after our reconnaissance, we found a large number of enemy tanks and armored vehicles being loaded at the train station west of the original station. And based on the confessions of the captured prisoners, the enemy's 24th Armored Corps is about to move westward."
Vatutin, who was staying at the headquarters, soon received a telegram from Lieutenant Eskel. After reading the above content, he quickly handed the telegram to Zhukov and said respectfully: "Comrade Marshal, look, this is the telegram just sent by our scouts. It seems that the situation analyzed by General Sokov is It is completely accurate that troops of the enemy's 24th Armored Corps are boarding one after another and preparing to move west."
However, after Zhukov read the telegram, he said expressionlessly: "Comrade Vatutin, you should understand that the exact whereabouts of the German 24th Armored Corps is related to the outcome of the Battle of Kursk. You immediately give the scout Call back and ask them to verify again, and be sure to find out the true whereabouts of the enemy."
Vatutin did not dare to disobey Zhukov's order. He quickly ordered his chief of staff to send a telegram back to Lieutenant Eskel so that the reconnaissance team could continue to verify the intelligence and make sure it was accurate.
After Eskel received a call back from the headquarters, he sent someone to check the area and finally discovered that this railway line had been sabotaged by guerrillas. Many sections of the railway line leading to the east don't even have railroad tracks, making it inaccessible to traffic at all. On the contrary, the railway to the west was intact, and the Germans also sent out many patrol teams to patrol along the railway to avoid damage by the guerrillas.
After figuring out what happened here, Eskel sent a telegram to the intelligence office of the headquarters for the third time, introducing the situation here in detail, and stating in a positive tone that the enemy was indeed moving westward, absolutely. Not doing any tricks.
After receiving the telegram again, Vatutin checked repeatedly and confirmed that there would be no falsehoods in the situation reported by Eskel, and then he said to Zhukov: "Comrade Marshal, according to the latest report of the scouts, , the railway line leading from the train station to the east has long been destroyed by the guerrillas, and even the rails in some areas have been ripped off. On the contrary, the railway leading to the west is intact, and there are enemy patrols patrolling along the way. .
It seemed that Major General Sokov's analysis was correct, and the enemy was indeed transferred to the west by the German high command. We can concentrate all our efforts to deal with the enemy outside Prokhorovka. "
Since it is information that has been repeatedly verified by the scouts, the chance of error should be extremely low. But even so, Zhukov still stared at the map for a long time, and when he determined that there were no crossings on the westward railway, which could allow trains carrying tanks, artillery and armored vehicles to arrive outside Prokhorovka from other lines, he hesitated. The huge stone in my heart has finally fallen to the ground.
Zhukov stood up straight, exhaled softly, tapped the map on the table with his fingers and said: "In the next battle, our unit that will play the leading role will be Rotmistrov's Guards tanks. As long as the 5th Army can defeat the German troops outside the city, we will win the final victory in the Battle of Kursk."
