By evening, Roskova finally received the order to take off, and she immediately led the whole regiment of 24 dive bombers, in a four-plane formation, towards the German defensive positions in Rostov-on-Don.

Still far away, Roskova saw billowing smoke rising from the ground, the result of the bombing of the bombers in front. She vaguely saw the Germans on the ground extinguishing burning fortifications, repairing collapsed trenches, treating the wounded and wounded, and cleaning up the corpses in the trenches......

Seeing that a dense formation of Soviet bombers appeared in the air again, the Germans on the position suddenly panicked, and they began to run around, looking for a safe hiding place. Seeing this, Roslava radioed to her subordinates: "Attention all aircraft, reduce the altitude, and prepare to carry out dive bombing on ground targets." ”

While the 587th Women's Dive Bomber Regiment was bombing the German defensive positions, Rokossovsky was in his headquarters, chatting with the visiting Chief of the General Staff Vasilevsky and the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force Novikov.

Vasilevsky asked: "Comrade Rokossovsky, do you really think that Paulus, who is surrounded by us, has no possibility of breaking through?" ”

"Comrade Chief of the General Staff." To Vasilevsky's question, Rokossovsky replied in the affirmative: "If Hort's tank army had remained 35 kilometers away from the 6th Army, and Paulus had been able to decisively make up his mind to concentrate all his tanks and fuel and carry out a surprise attack on our defensive positions, then they would have been able to break through." Now that Holt's forces have been repulsed by us and retreated more than a hundred kilometers away, their hope of a breakthrough is even more slim. ”

"That's right, Comrade Chief of the General Staff." "If Malinovsky's 2nd Guards Army succeeds in liberating Rostov-on-Don, then the distance between the two German armies will become even more distant, and Paulus will face the end of being wiped out by our troops," Malinin interjected. ”

Hearing the opinion of the commander and the chief of staff, the chief of the armored forces, General Orel, also expressed his opinion: "The encircled German troops were not without attempts to break through, but because of the order given to them by Hitler, they had to abandon their intention to break through the encirclement.

If they do act, they will be able to establish contact with Hort's tank army and get enough fuel, ammunition, and food. According to what we know, Army Group Don has prepared a convoy with the intention of delivering to Paulus's troops as soon as the two forces converge and deliver all the urgently needed supplies of up to three thousand tons. However, due to Paulus's indecision, they were unable to obtain this valuable material. ”

Seeing that the commander of the Stalingrad Front was full of confidence in the destruction of the encircled Paulus troops, Vasilevsky turned his attention to the commander-in-chief of the Air Force, Novikov, who came with him: "General Novikov, according to the battle plan of the base camp, your air force will play a huge role in this campaign, and you can talk about your opinion." ”

Novikov nodded, and then said: "According to the past practice, the air force only plays a cooperative role in the campaign, such as bombing the German defensive positions, providing air support for the attacking troops, and so on. But in this campaign, we became the protagonists, and before the offensive began, our air force had to make frequent sorties to carry out high-intensity bombardment of the German defenses. Speaking of this, he asked Rokossovsky with a smile, "Comrade General, I would like to ask what were the results achieved in today's bombing?" ”

In response to Novikov's question, Rokossovsky glanced at Malinin next to him and motioned for him to answer the question: "Our air force today made three hundred sorties and carried out heavy bombardment of German positions in Rostov-on-Don. According to incomplete statistics, in this bombing, we destroyed a large number of German tanks and various firepower points, greatly weakened the German army's vital forces, and created favorable conditions for our army's next offensive. ”

After listening to Malinin's words, Novikov couldn't help frowning: "General Malinin, I want to know about the specific bombing effect, not the general results in your mouth. ”

"In this bombing, our air force destroyed seven German anti-aircraft fire points, five tanks, three armored vehicles and more than thirty vehicles of various types." Seeing that Novikov was not satisfied with his report, Malinin, after receiving permission from Rokossovsky, briefed the other side on the results of the day's bombing: "Most of the German fortifications and civil fire points in front of our army's offensive have been destroyed in the intensive bombardment......"

After listening to a series of data from Malinin, Novikov's face finally showed a smile. He turned to Vasilevsky and said: "It seems that we have achieved really good results in such intensive bombing of the German army. As long as they bombed continuously for a week, the German defenses would become vulnerable. ”

The commander of the artillery of the Front, Kazakov, continued: "For this offensive, we equipped the 2nd Guards Army with only two artillery regiments and a rocket artillery battalion. In the past, this artillery could not have been able to meet the artillery preparations before the attack. But today's bombing by the Air Force gives us reason to believe that even if there is not enough time for artillery and artillery preparation, our troops will easily break through the German defenses. ”

After a brief meeting, Rokossovsky took Vasilevsky and Novikov to the inner room, because he sensed that the Chief of the General Staff had come not to ask about the success of the Air Force's bombing of the enemy, but that there must have been something more important.

After coming to the inner room and sitting down, Rokossovsky poured a cup of tea for each of them, and asked: "Comrade Chief of the General Staff, I don't know if you are here today, do you have any other important things?" ”

"Comrade Stalin asked me to ask you." Vasilevsky restrained the smile on his face and said with a serious expression: "If the 'Battle of the Ring' is launched, how long will you be able to completely wipe out Paulus's troops?" ”

Rokossovsky thought for a moment, and then replied: "If according to the current situation of the Front, it will take at least twenty days to a month to completely destroy the besieged German troops. ”

Vasilevsky heard Rokossovsky's words and hurriedly asked: "Comrade Rokossovsky, I don't know what kind of help you want the base camp to provide you?" ”

"Comrade Chief of the General Staff, I think so." Rokossovsky said in a steady tone: "Since Paulus's troops are already surrounded by our army, it has become impossible for them to get supplies by rail or road. The ammunition and supplies they need in normal times can only be transported by air or drop. ”

"Yes, that's exactly what happened." After hearing this, Vasilevsky nodded, and then asked: "So what?" ”

"Some time ago, the Luftwaffe for the air supply of Paulus's troops was greatly weakened by the successful breakthrough of the 24th Tank Army into the German airfield at Tatsinskaya, destroying a large number of enemy transport aircraft." Rokossovsky said this, and after a moment of silence, he raised his voice and said: "But this is not enough, we should completely cut off Paulus's air supplies, so that they will be unable to resist because of hunger, cold, and lack of ammunition, so that our army can completely destroy them in the shortest possible time." ”

"Comrade Rokossovsky, tell me," Novikov heard from Rokossovsky's words that he was planning to entrust the most difficult task to his own air force, so he asked: "What should we do?" ”

"Fighter formations were sent out every day to patrol the routes where German transport planes might appear. As soon as the transports of enemy aircraft are spotted, they are decisively shot down. Rokossovsky faced the two and said: "The more than 200,000 enemies in the encirclement consume an astronomical amount of supplies every day, if we cut off all their supplies." Otherwise, in a week, they will have to obediently lay down their arms and surrender, otherwise they will be wiped out cleanly and completely by our army. ”

After listening to Rokossovsky's words, Novikov said thoughtfully: "General Rokossovsky, your plan has a certain feasibility. But you also know that every year in December and January, there is a lot of bad weather, and our Air Force does not yet have the ability to perform tasks in any conditions. Even if our military fighter planes blocked the German airlift routes, in the event of bad weather, the German pilots could take off and carry out airdrops for the trapped troops. ”

"General Novikov, we have also taken into account the situation you said." Rokossovsky said confidently: "We will set up several anti-aircraft positions on this transport route, and in the event of bad weather and the air force cannot take off, we will use anti-aircraft artillery fire on the ground to intercept the German transport planes." ”

"As long as the supply lines of the German army are cut off," Vasilevsky said with a smile on his face, "I believe that in the cold weather, they will not be able to hold out for long." You may not know it, but in the information we received, when our counteroffensive began, the Germans burned their military coats in order to speed up the march and break out of our encirclement as quickly as possible. As a result, due to the swift and timely occupation of Karachi by our troops, the retreat of the German army was blocked, and two or three hundred thousand German troops fell into our encirclement. ”

"In such a cold weather, I can't survive the winter without a military coat." Novikov said in surprise: "That is to say, as long as the temperature continues to drop, even if our army does not attack, the Germans in the encirclement will die of cold and starvation due to lack of food and clothing." After he said this, he shook his head again, "But we can't wait that long to destroy the enemy besieged in Stalingrad, we still need to turn around and destroy the enemy who is staying in the Caucasus." ”

After Rokossovsky waited for Novikov to finish speaking, he said to Vasilevsky: "The base camp has equipped us with fifty automatic sleds, which we used during the great counteroffensive in Moscow, and the effect was very good. It's a pity that the arsenal, which produced this equipment at that time, had been relocated to the rear, so it was not possible to equip the troops. Comrade Chief of the General Staff, I wonder if you could say a word to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief himself and ask him to give us another batch of automatic sleds? ”

After listening to Rokossovsky's request, Vasilevsky asked with some confusion: "Although this automatic sled is highly maneuverable in the snow, it can only carry two crew members: a driver and a machine gunner. If it's used in combat, I don't think it's very useful. ”

"Comrade Chief of the General Staff, I think so." Rokossovsky saw that Vasilevsky was a little unimpressed with the automatic sled, and hurriedly explained to him: "As long as our army is equipped with a large number of such automatic sleds, then every night, we can use a two-car formation to attack the German camp, in addition to strafing with vehicle-mounted machine guns, we can also throw grenades at the enemy's tents and heating fires, and harass them." ”

After Vasilevsky waited for Rokossovsky to finish, he turned his head to look at Novikov, smiled and said, "You heard everything, General Novikov." Rokossovsky was a commander who liked to be creative, and he always came up with whimsical ideas against the Germans. However, his approach has proven to be very effective. Just like shortly after the outbreak of the war, he commanded the troops of the 9th Mechanized Army, boldly crossed the German defense line, jumped more than 200 kilometers overnight, captured Lublin, where the German army was hoarding supplies, and captured a large amount of weapons and ammunition, disrupting the German army's offensive deployment. ”

Hearing Vasilevsky mention his glorious achievements in the past, Rokossovsky smiled bitterly and said self-deprecatingly: "It's a pity that there was no cooperation of the air force at that time, otherwise we would have inflicted greater losses on the enemy, and even rescued all the friendly troops trapped in the Brest Fortress." ”

Vasilevsky heard Rokossovsky mention the Brest Fortress, and couldn't help but ask: "By the way, I remember that among the people you seemed to have rescued at that time, there was a political commissar. What is his name and where is he now? ”

"His name is Fuming, and he is the political commissar of the fortress." After Vasilevsky's reminder, Rokossovsky suddenly remembered this political worker who had fought side by side with him, but unfortunately he did not know where he was now: "Since I led the troops to Shepetovka, I have lost contact with him. I don't know which unit he is in now, whether he continues to serve as a political commissar, or if he has died in battle. ”