The next day, Sokov, who had just arrived at his new headquarters, suddenly heard the roar of an airplane engine outside. Judging from the sound, there were quite a few coming. At first, he thought it was enemy planes coming to bomb, but after listening carefully for a moment, he found that the sound came from behind him. The German planes could not appear from the east, and they should be his own. The plane is the right one.
He walked to the window, opened it and looked at the sky. Dozens of transport planes were seen flying towards Warsaw, escorted by four fighter jets in a four-plane formation. Seeing this, Sokov thought to himself: What is going on? How come there are so many transport planes heading towards Warsaw?
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Sidorin also came to the window, looked up at the group of transport planes flying overhead, and asked Sokov with some confusion: "Comrade Commander, what is going on? Why are there so many transport planes?"
Ponijelin also came over and asked tentatively: "Is it possible that Comrade Marshal plans to send airborne troops to land in Warsaw to assist our troops in the east of the city to capture Warsaw?"
"This is unlikely." Although Sokov didn't know why so many transport planes appeared, he knew very well that the so-called airborne landing in Warsaw was just Ponejelin's wishful thinking. Not to mention there are only a few dozen transport planes, even if there are hundreds of them, if they are airborne in Warsaw at this moment, the German ground anti-aircraft fire can wipe out most of the paratroopers in the air. Therefore, he explained to the two of them: "The anti-aircraft firepower on the ground in Warsaw is strong. To implement airborne landings in such a city is equivalent to letting the paratroopers die."
"Then why are there so many transport planes in the sky?" Ponejelin asked in confusion: "What are they going to do?"
"Instead of guessing here, we should call the front army headquarters directly. Maybe we can only get a decent answer from us directly." After Sokov said, he called the director of the communications corps and asked him to help. After getting through the phone call to the front army headquarters, he planned to ask Rokossovsky or Malinin personally what was going on with these transport planes.
The call was quickly connected, and when he heard Ma Linin's voice coming from the receiver, Sokov quickly said respectfully: "Hello, Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front Army, I have something to ask you."
"Speak, General Sokov."
"That's right. Not long ago, I saw a large number of transport planes flying in the direction of Warsaw under the escort of fighter planes." Sokov asked tentatively: "I wonder what mission they are performing?"
Malinin originally wanted Sokov to mind his own business, but then he thought about it. Every time the transport fleet sent to Warsaw for an airdrop mission would fly over the headquarters of Sokov's troops, he no longer concealed it and told the truth. He replied: "General Sokov, we are ordered to airdrop weapons, ammunition, food and medicine to the rebels in Warsaw to support them in continuing to fight the Germans."
Sokov was stunned, and then asked: "I was ordered to airdrop weapons, ammunition and supplies to the Warsaw Uprising Army? I wonder who gave such an order?"
Malinen was silent for a moment, and then said angrily: "It's an order from the Supreme Command."
After hearing this, Sokov became even more puzzled. How could the High Command suddenly give Rokossovsky an order under such circumstances, asking him to send a plane to airdrop the rebels in Warsaw? With this question, Sokov asked again: "Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front Army, I would like to ask what is going on. Why do you suddenly think of airdropping weapons, ammunition and supplies for the Warsaw Uprising Army?"
"The Polish government in exile in London personally called Comrade Stalin and asked him to lend a helping hand to the Warsaw Uprising Army and provide the necessary help to the Uprising Army. There is even a delegation that will visit Moscow in the near future." Malinen said : "It is for this reason that we risked going to the skies over Warsaw to airdrop supplies to save the rebels in the city."
After Sokov learned the information he wanted to know, he ended the conversation with Malinin. Ponyjelin and Sidorin, who were eager to know the answer, asked: "Comrade Commander, what happened to the transport plane flying over our defense area?"
"The Chief of Staff of the Front Army said," Sokov replied: "This is an order from the Supreme Command. Our army dispatched transport aircraft to airdrop weapons, ammunition and supplies to the rebels in Warsaw to ensure that they can continue to fight the Germans. "
After listening to Sokov's words, Sidorin said unconvinced: "Didn't those gentlemen in London say they want to support the Krajow Army? Why didn't they send out the air force to airdrop supplies to the Warsaw Uprising Army, but they wanted to What about our people doing this kind of thing? According to me, even if the Klajov army in Warsaw got the supplies we airdropped, they probably wouldn't think much of us. They still thought it was all done by London's masters. We did it for them.”
When Sokov heard what Sidorin said, he couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart, secretly saying that it was not that the British did not want to support Warsaw, but the problem was that they were powerless at the moment. Both the United States and the United Kingdom are busy carrying out "Operation Garden Market". Where do they have the troops and a sufficient number of aircraft to airdrop supplies to the Warsaw Uprising Army?
The tactical gist of Operation Garden Market was to use the largest airborne surprise attack in history, combined with the fast-moving coordinated operations of ground armored forces, to seize a series of bridges on major rivers in the Netherlands that were still controlled by the Germans; the strategic objective was to seize After taking control of these bridges, the Allies were able to cross the Rhine River, the last natural barrier on the German border, and ended World War II in a short time while the German army had not yet gained a firm foothold.
However, the balance of fate was tilted in favor of the Germans from the beginning. Due to intelligence errors, Montgomery had no idea that the Germans had deployed two armored divisions of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps and some units of the 1st Airborne Army in the area where the Allied forces were scheduled to land.
What's particularly bad is that only two hours after the Allied forces launched the air assault, General Kurt Student, commander of the German 1st Airborne Army, obtained an Allied combat order from a downed glider. He immediately took this order to the headquarters of Army Group B to meet Commander-in-Chief Model to plan the German counterattack. Among the German generals, Stuart was more familiar with the Netherlands than anyone else and understood the significant shortcomings of the airborne forces—such as their lack of maneuverability on the ground and lack of heavy weapons. In the end, Model chose Anheng as the training area for the SS Armored Forces. They tried their best to prevent the Allied airborne troops and armored forces from joining forces.
Sokov knew this period of history. He felt that Model was far away in the Netherlands, and none of the commanders fighting the Soviet army had the ability to match Model. If the Soviet army launched a large-scale attack at this moment, it would definitely be Achieve unexpected results.
"Comrade Chief of Staff," Sokov looked at Sidorin and said, "I think there are many reasons why the British did not airdrop supplies to the rebels in Warsaw, but the main reason is that they are not so good now. There are many transport aircraft that can be used for airdrops; secondly, when they carried out airdrops into Warsaw some time ago, they were hit by German ground anti-aircraft firepower and lost some aircraft. This made them feel that such unnecessary sacrifices should be avoided, so they stopped attacking Airdrop of rebel forces in Warsaw.”
After listening to what Sokov said, Sidorin sneered and said: "The British are so clever in their calculations. Their support for Warsaw only remains in words, and they let us put it into practice on their behalf."
"I feel that if the rebels in Warsaw can continue to fight the Germans and win the final victory." Ponedelin suddenly interjected: "At that time, the people of the Klajov Army will still be grateful. It's London, not us who have made huge sacrifices."
"You're right." Sokov thought about the voices in later generations condemning the Soviet army, saying that just outside Warsaw, they still stood still and allowed the weak rebel army to fight the enemy who was armed to the teeth. This is obviously a distortion of the facts, taking the verbal support from London as the truth, but they are completely blackmailed by the Soviet army who paid the price for the liberation of Warsaw: "If they can persist until our army finally captures Warsaw, in their hearts The people I am grateful to are probably those gentlemen in London."
"Comrade Commander, are our actions today focused on expanding the landing site?" Sidorin asked.
"Yes, Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov nodded and said: "No matter how the situation changes next, the task of our army group is to gain a foothold at the landing site on the left bank and try to expand it. Waiting for the 65th and 4th After the 70th Army united its forces, it launched a new attack on the enemy."
"Comrade Commander, when do you think we can take Warsaw?" Sidorin said excitedly: "Now we have deployed five or six group armies near Warsaw. With such strength, I think we can win it by the end of September or October." There shouldn’t be much of a problem in capturing the city of Warsaw at the beginning of the month.”
But Sokov is obviously not as optimistic as Sidorin. He knows that a lot of things will happen next. For example, the rebels in Warsaw will lay down their weapons and surrender to the Germans on October 2. I don't know if the appearance of my little butterfly will delay the surrender of the rebel army.
In mid-October, Rokossovsky, who was preparing to concentrate his efforts on launching the final general attack on Warsaw, received an order from Stalin to hand over the duties of the First Belarusian Front to Zhukov, and then go to the Second Front to serve as The position of commander. The liberation of Warsaw had to wait until January 17, 1945.
Thinking of this, Sokov couldn't help but trembled. He clearly remembered that the troops that liberated Warsaw were the 47th and 61st Army Groups, as well as the Polish 1st Army Group. The 48th Army under his command and the 65th Army under Batov's command also inexplicably disappeared from the battle order of the First Belarusian Front.
Seeing that Sokov suddenly became stunned, Sidorin quickly touched his arm with his hand and asked tentatively: "Comrade Commander, are you okay?"
"It's okay, it's okay." Sokov woke up from his thoughts and hurriedly said in a covert manner: "I was just thinking about something, and I fell into a trance without knowing it."
"Comrade Commander," Ponejelin said to Sokov: "I think what the Chief of Staff said is very reasonable. If our superiors really order us to provide large-scale assistance to the rebels in the city, it means that our army will provide assistance to the rebels in the city in the near future. Warsaw launches a new round of offensive and strives to capture the city as soon as possible."
"Comrade Deputy Commander, I don't think so." Sokov relied on his knowledge of history and said to Ponedelin: "The troops of the front army are now scattered, and it is impossible to regroup in a short time to launch a larger-scale launch." attack. So I think that within three months, our army will not launch a large-scale attack on Warsaw..."
"Ah, you won't launch an attack on Warsaw within three months?" After hearing what Sokov said, Sidorin, who was a little absent-minded, suddenly became energetic. He retorted: "Comrade Commander, although the troops In the early battles, we all suffered a certain amount of casualties, but if Comrade Marshal gathered all the troops, I don’t believe that we can’t deal with just a few divisions of the German army.”
"Chief of Staff, you can't say that." Sokov continued: "The German army's army structure is different from our army. Now our division has only six thousand to eight thousand troops; as for the Germans, ordinary infantry The division is 15,000 men, and the armored division is 18,000 men.
For example, if the German army has two or three divisions in a certain area, the total strength can reach about 50,000. If our army wants to defeat or even eliminate these two or three divisions of the German army, it must dispatch eight divisions to barely be roughly equal to the opponent's strength. You are also an experienced commander, and you should understand how complicated the coordinated operations of eight divisions are. Without an excellent commander to unify the command, the enemy may not be eliminated in the end. Our army suffered heavy losses. "
"Yes, yes, what Comrade Commander said is very reasonable." Ponjelin echoed: "Two or three divisions are fighting together, and there are relatively few problems between them. But if the number of joint operations increases to eight If there are even more divisions, then the situation is completely different. Without unified command, the troops will definitely fight independently on the battlefield. And even if there is unified command, those division-level commanders will willingly obey one Isn’t it the command of my superior commander?”
"Comrade Chief of Staff." Sokov didn't want to get entangled in these issues, so he promptly changed the subject and asked Sidorin: "When will the 3rd and 109th Infantry Divisions cross the Narew River?"
"The troops are already gathering towards the river at Narev." Sidorin replied: "In two hours at most, they will be able to start crossing the river. I would like to ask, will they immediately go into battle as soon as they complete the crossing? "
"No need for the time being." Sokov shook his head and said, "Let them rest first and recharge their batteries. When they are needed, they will naturally be put into battle."
"Okay, Comrade Commander." After Sidorin recorded Sokov's order, he said to him: "I will convey your order to the commanders of the 3rd and 109th Infantry Divisions as soon as possible, and let them follow your instructions. Execute the order.”
"By the way, we have now erected three more pontoon bridges." Sokov asked: "Can the existing air defense forces ensure the safety of four pontoon bridges at the same time?"
"This is not a big problem." Sidorin replied: "I reasonably allocated the two anti-aircraft artillery regiments in the area where the four pontoon bridges are located. No matter which direction the German bombers come from, they will be enough to drink a bottle."
