Out of protection for the female pilots, after a bombing mission, Rokossovsky ordered Rudenko to temporarily hide them in the snow and no longer carry out any bombing missions against the Germans, but to familiarize himself with the newly modified Mosquito bombers. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Rudenko did not ask anything about Rokossovsky's order, but left to carry it out to the letter. On the contrary, Military Commissar Kirichenko asked puzzledly: "Comrade commander, since we have already redressed the 588th Women's Night Bomber Regiment, why don't you let them go on combat missions, but familiarize themselves with the preparations every day?" As far as I know, within two days of the planes being brought back, the girls were proficient in piloting the new planes. ”

"Comrade Military Commissar, as the saying goes: Good steel must be used on the blade." Rokossovsky said with a smile: "We still have a lot of big and bad battles to fight in the future, and if these excellent pilots are consumed in the early battles too early, when they are needed to carry out the mission, they will face a situation where there is no one available." ”

"A big battle, a bad battle?" After chewing these two words repeatedly, Kirichko asked with some surprise: "Comrade commander, have you gotten some gossip that our army is preparing to launch a full-scale counteroffensive against the German army?" ”

"It's not a little gossip either," Rokossovsky said to Kirichenko's question, neither recognizing nor denying it, "according to my analysis, in order to destroy the enemy in the Stalingrad region, it is necessary to use at least the forces of the three front armies." Among them, the Stalingrad Front was to carry out a surprise attack from the area of Lake Sarpa; The Don Front, with active actions, pinned down the enemy forces between the Volga and the Don to the maximum, while carrying out a surprise attack on the right flank, coordinated with the reconstituted Southwestern Front. The Southwestern Front set out from the landing ground on the south bank of the Don River to carry out the main assault on the enemy.

As a result, the two flanks of the German army in the Stalingrad area would be subjected to a powerful assault from two directions. If you're lucky, your troops will be able to encircle and annihilate the enemy. ”

When Kirichchenko heard Rokossovsky say this, a smile suddenly appeared on his face, but after a while, he retracted his smile and asked in confusion: "Comrade commander, I don't understand, what is the connection between our encirclement and annihilation of the enemy in the Stalingrad region and the fact that you are now hiding the snow of the women's night bomber regiment?" ”

For such a wooden Kirichenko, Rokossovsky really had a feeling of crying and laughing. In order not to let the other party think cranky, he still explained: "That's the case, Comrade Military Commissar. Once our army has encircled the German army group, in order to destroy them, in addition to the ground forces, it is necessary to use the air force to carry out intensive saturation bombing of their defensive positions and logistics warehouses. Bombing during the day, which can be done by our Air Force lads; But at night, it was up to the girls, whom the Germans called 'Night Witches', to carry out night bombing missions. Do you understand? ”

"Understood, Comrade Commander." After listening to Rokossovsky's explanation, Kirichchenko suddenly came to his senses, and he nodded again and again and said: "As long as we carry out non-stop bombardment of the besieged German army, we can speed up their collapse." ”

Seeing that Kirichenko truly understood his intentions, Rokossovsky nodded with satisfaction, and then said: "Although we have temporarily hidden the 588th Regiment, we can still give the girls of the 587th Bombardment Regiment a chance to make contributions." ”

"How are you going to use them?" After spending some time with Rokossovsky, Kirichenko knew that everything the other party said was well thought out, so he did not raise objections, but humbly asked: "Or do you go to bomb German positions every day, like male pilots?" ”

"That's right, that's exactly what I thought." Rokossovsky nodded and said affirmatively: "The male pilots go to bomb the German defensive positions, troop assembly areas and logistics warehouses during the day, and I plan to let the female pilots bomb the German transport lines." He was afraid that Kirichchenko would not understand, so he specially explained to him directly on the map, "The enemy in the Stalingrad region can only be supplied by rail and road. In order to protect against attacks by our partisans, the Germans defended their transport lines very well. Since on the ground, we have no problem with the enemy's lines of communication, then solve it by air power. ”

Rokossovsky's words immediately aroused Kirichenko's keen interest, and he asked curiously: "What are your plans?" ”

"It's very simple, let the girls of the 587th Regiment, in a two-plane formation, patrol along the German transport lines, and attack as soon as they find the enemy's trains and trucks transporting supplies. In order to avoid being bitten by the German patrol fighters, they had to return to the ship as soon as they finished dropping their bombs. ”

Kirichko tilted his head and looked at the map for a while, and again raised a question: "Comrade commander, why do I think that such a bombing will not have much effect?" After all, we had only two bombers on our sortie, carrying a limited number of bombs and not being able to inflict much damage on the enemy's transport convoy. ”

"It is obviously impossible to destroy the transport lines of the German army with a few bombers." Rokossovsky explained to Kirichko with a smile: "I just intended that with this small-scale, low-intensity bombing, the German transport lines would not be as smooth as before." As a result, it was possible that the German rear would be flooded with supplies, while the supplies that were urgently needed at the front often could not be delivered in time. ”

"Wonderful, Comrade Commander, this is really a wonderful way of yours." After Kirichchenko waited for Rokossovsky to finish speaking, he couldn't help but exclaim, "As long as the logistics supply of the German army is affected, they will have to stop the offensive in some areas and be forced to go on the defensive." In this way, the pressure on our troops in the city will be greatly reduced. ”

"Comrade Military Commissar, since you have no opinion, then I will immediately draft an order to the air force units to have the 587th Women's Bombardment Regiment attack and disturb the lines of communication of the German army." Rokossovsky bowed his head and wrote the order in his notebook, and said to Kirichenko: "After the two of us signed it together, we will send it to General Rudenko." ”

"No problem, Comrade Commander." Kirichenko readily agreed: "I strongly support your decision. ”