With Banov's 1st Guards Tank Army, having entered the battlefield from the breakthrough of the 65th Army, a rapid advance towards Bobruisk was made. Seeing that their lines had been broken by the Soviets and feeling in danger of being surrounded, the Germans began to retreat in a planned manner, preparing to re-establish a new defense across the Berezina River.

After learning of this news, Rokossovsky hurriedly discussed countermeasures with Malinin, and he said with frowns: "Chief of Staff, if the Germans are allowed to escape smoothly to the other side of the Berezina River, it will have an adverse impact on our next move. Do you have any good ways to intercept them? ”

Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Ma Lining's face not only did not have the slightest look of anxiety, but showed a smile: "Don't worry, Comrade Commander, we will definitely intercept them." ”

"Our tank forces will not be able to return to the Berezina River for the time being," Rokossovsky said, staring at the map and with a sad face, "If you want to intercept them, you can only let Rudenko send an air force to carry out saturation bombing on the retreating German army." But in this way, we will have to reduce the intensity of air support for ground forces. ”

"Comrade commander, have you forgotten that in the formation of the Front, there is also a fleet of the Dnieper region." After waiting for Rokossovsky to finish, Malinin carefully reminded him: "Now it's time to let this river fleet play a role." ”

After Malinin reminded him, Rokossovsky suddenly remembered that in the formation of the troops of the Front, there was indeed a fleet of the Dnieper region, and because they had never been allowed to carry out any combat missions, they had forgotten about it. He hurriedly asked Malinin: "Where is our fleet?" ”

"Here they are now deployed in the lower reaches of the Berezina River." Pointing to a river on the map near the position of the 65th Army, Malinin said: "I suggest that they go up the river and send marines to capture the crossing and cut off the retreat of the German army." ”

"Great, that's great." Rokossovsky felt that it was definitely more reliable to use the river flotilla to seize the German ferries and pontoon bridges than to send tank troops or air forces, so he readily agreed: "Chief of staff, you immediately give the commander of the fleet in the Dnieper region a battle order, and ask him to immediately send a detachment of speedboats to transport the marines up the river to seize the enemy's river crossings and pontoon bridges, and cut off the way for the Germans to flee north." In addition, we had to throw all the reserves of the Front into battle, ordering them to attack Bobruisk from the east. ”

The commander of the fleet of the Dnieper district, Colonel Grigoliyev, who received Malinin's order, immediately called the commander of the 2nd speedboat detachment, Lieutenant Colonel Layak. "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I have just received a call from the Chief of Staff of the Front, General Malinin, who ordered us to make an immediate sortie, go up the Berezina River, and take the Marines to seize the German crossings and pontoon bridges and cut off their retreat. ”

Lieutenant Colonel Rajak, who had thought that he would not be able to win a battle in this offensive campaign, was stunned for a moment when he heard Grigoliyev's order, and then said excitedly: "Understood, Comrade Commander, I will immediately lead the fleet to attack and seize the enemy's ferry and cut off their retreat. ”

With the order to fight, more than 30 speedboats of the second detachment, carrying a battalion of marines, drove up the river at full speed. The German troops stationed on both sides of the strait saw the Soviet ships moving quickly upstream, and they couldn't guess their intentions, so they hurriedly opened fire to intercept them.

However, Malinin apparently had long considered that the fleet would be intercepted by German artillery fire during the march, and specially sent an air force to coordinate. At this moment, seeing the German artillery along the coast firing, the planes acting as air cover immediately dived down, dropping bombs and strafing at the exposed German artillery positions, covering the fleet's safe passage through this section.

As the pontoon bridge erected by the Germans appeared in Rajak's field of vision, he immediately informed the fleet by radio: "Attention ships, attention ships, the front is about to reach the crossing we are going to capture, and immediately prepare for the landing of the marines." ”

The chief of staff of the detachment reminded him from the sidelines: "Comrade lieutenant colonel, lo and behold, there is an enemy on the pontoon!" ”

Rajak raised his binoculars and looked ahead, only to see a German artillery unit, preparing to retreat to the opposite bank through the pontoon bridge. Seeing this, Rajak decisively ordered: "Order the ship's guns to open fire and destroy the enemy on the bridge." ”

With Rajak's order, the 12.7 mm twin machine guns on the three speedboats lined up in a row opened fire at the same time, and the German officers and soldiers exposed on the pontoon bridge were dealt a fatal blow. The surviving German soldiers were horrified to see their comrades interrupted or beaten to pieces. In order to save their lives, they either jumped into the rushing river or turned around and fled back to the shore.

The speedboat that Lajak was riding in was so fast that he rushed straight over and smashed the pontoon bridge into two sections, and the huge impact of the collision almost caused him to fall to the ground. The Marines on the speedboat, who were ready to go, jumped off the boat one after another and rushed to the shore along the remaining pontoon bridge without waiting for the ship to stop.

More than two dozen speedboats following behind also stopped one after another close to the shore. The marines on board the ship jumped into the water, followed a red flag to the shore, and rushed to the German crossing.

The Germans guarding the crossing were few in number, and under the attack of the marines, the crossing soon fell into the hands of the Soviets. In order to ensure that the ferry was not recaptured by the Germans, Lajac ordered the detachment's ships to remain anchored on the shore to provide adequate fire support for the marines defending the ferry. At the same time, he telephoned the commander of the fleet, Grigoliev, first with the good news that the ferry had been captured, and then asked the commander to send a new detachment to continue the attack on the remaining ferries upstream.

Immediately after receiving the call, Grigoliyev gave an order to his chief of staff: "The 1st and 3rd fast ship detachments, the 1st and 2nd separate fast ship detachments, immediately carry the marines, rush to the upper reaches of the Berezina River, continue to seize the crossings controlled by the Germans, and cut off their retreat." ”

As the commander of the fleet, Grigoliev knew in his heart that it would be very difficult to hold these crossings by relying only on the strength of the fleet. The Germans, who jumped over the wall in a hurry, will definitely launch a frantic counterattack. So he called the command of the Front and asked Malinin for reinforcements.

When Malinin conveyed Grigoleev's request to Rokossovsky, Rokossovsky, after thinking for a moment, said decisively to Malinin: "Chief of Staff, order General Rudenko to send bombers to bomb the ferries still occupied by the Germans, and if necessary, to bomb the enemy who are attacking the ferries occupied by our troops; Secondly, the troops that were advancing towards the Berezina River were ordered to rush to the crossing as soon as possible, join up with the marines who were holding there, and completely cut off the enemy's retreat. ”

…………

Due to the fact that Rokossovsky, at the junction of the 28th and 65th armies, threw General Priev's cavalry mechanized group into battle, the German defense line became shaky. Seeing this, Zhukov, who was supervising the battle in the 3rd Army, immediately ordered Gorbatov to launch a new attack on the Germans again. In order to speed up the breakthrough of the German defenses, Gorbatov decisively threw two tank brigades directly under the army group into battle.

Probably, because of the smooth progress of friendly forces, the entire German line was shaken, and Gorbatov's troops successfully broke through the section that had been repeatedly defeated yesterday. After reading the battle report, Zhukov said to Gorbatov: "General Gorbatov, I think that tomorrow Bakharov's 9th tank army can be put into the Dobritsa area. ”

Gorbatov stared at the map for a while, and felt that Zhukov's approach was too risky, after all, as soon as the offensive campaign began, he would put his main forces into battle, and if the logistics battle did not go well, he would not have enough strength in his hands to crush the German counterattack, so he cautiously asked: "Comrade Marshal, is it a little too early to put the 9th Tank Army into battle now?" ”

"Not early, not at all." Zhukov pointed to the map and said to Gorbatov: "The task of the 9th Tank Army is to break through the enemy's deep rear, advance in the Titovka area to the eastern bank of the Berezina River, seize Staritsa and cut off the road from Mogilev to Bobruisk. ”

After listening to Zhukov's battle plan, Gorbatov finally understood why someone else could be a marshal, but he could only be a commander of a group army, and he was not as comprehensive as Zhukov. While he was still worried about how to break through the frontal German defenses, Zhukov was already thinking about how to cooperate with friendly forces and encircle the enemy in this area.

"Understood, Comrade Marshal." Gorbatov replied decisively: "I will immediately call General Bakharov and order his troops to advance overnight in the Dobritsa area, and when it is dawn tomorrow, they will decisively attack the enemy." ”

Zhukov was very satisfied with Gorbatov's statement, he nodded, and continued: "Comrade Gorbatov, the initiative on the battlefield is now in our hands, and we will put all our forces into battle, so that the complete defeat of the enemy will be faster. ”

Gorbatov, who had a cautious personality, waited for Zhukov to finish speaking, and asked cautiously: "Comrade Marshal, so it is necessary for us to put the reserves of the army group into battle as soon as possible?" ”

"That's right, that's right." Zhukov nodded and said: "In order to destroy the defenses of the German army as soon as possible, I strongly advise you to immediately put the troops of the second echelon into battle, quickly." ”