After the plane landed at the field airfield where the Stalingrad Front was located, Rokossovsky was surprised to find that no one had come to greet Zhukov and himself, and it was clear that Goldov did not know that Zhukov and himself were back here. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

Seeing two generals getting down from the plane that had just landed, one of them was the famous General Zhukov, the person in charge of the airport hurriedly ran over to greet him. After returning the salute to the other party, Zhukov asked expressionlessly: "Where is the headquarters of your front army?" ”

The person in charge of the airfield hurriedly replied: "Report to Comrade General, if you leave the airport and drive east, about ten kilometers or so, you will reach a small town called Yeltzovka, and the headquarters of the Front Army is located to the east of the town. ”

"Where is the battlefield?" Zhukov then asked.

For Zhukov, this somewhat inexplicable question made the head of the airport feel confused. He thought that Zhukov was worried about the security of the airport, and quickly explained: "The battle line is in the south, about thirty kilometers from here. Please rest assured, it will not be easy for the enemy to break through the defenses of our army, and it will not be easy to get here. ”

On the way to the headquarters of the Front by car, Zhukov kept his face bruised. Rokossovsky hurriedly asked with concern: "Comrade Zhukov, what's wrong with you?" ”

Zhukov snorted and said angrily: "The distance between the front army headquarters and the front line is more than 30 kilometers, and as a commander, he can only formulate operational arrangements through the battle reports from the front line. In the case of the rapidly changing situation on the battlefield, how can he make correct arrangements in the shortest possible time if he cannot understand the situation on the front line in a timely manner? This Goldov's performance was so disappointing that it was no wonder that the superiors wanted to replace him. ”

Originally, thinking that he was rushing to take over the post of Gordorf, Rokossovsky felt very guilty in his heart, and he believed that when the situation in the Stalingrad region was extremely unfavorable to the Soviet army, he frequently changed the commander of the front army, which had a bad impact on the war situation. But after listening to Zhukov's words, his thoughts changed unconsciously.

He secretly thought to himself: "General Goldov is also an old commander with rich combat experience, don't you know where the troops are fighting, the commander should be there, so that it will be easy to command, and the troops will be full of confidence." For the base camp, the Stalingrad Front, commanded by Goldov, was the best hope for rescuing Stalingrad from its current predicament. But Goldov's sluggish progress and lack of achievement made this hope dim, which is probably why his superiors sent Zhukov and himself here. ”

When the two of them arrived at the entrance of the front headquarters, the officer on duty standing at the door identified himself and swaggered into the building.

The headquarters of Goldov was a busy scene, with staff officers walking back and forth, and communications officers shouting hoarsely over the microphones. Zhukov stood at the door and watched for a while, then found where Gordorf was and strode towards him.

"Comrade Deputy Commander, why are you here?" Goldov, who was busy, saw someone standing in front of him, and thought that it was a staff officer who had information to report to him, but when he looked up, he found that it was Zhukov, so he quickly stopped what he was doing, stood up and shook hands with Zhukov.

After the two of them let go of their hands, Zhukov pointed at Rokossovsky, who was following behind him, and said: "This is Comrade Rokossovsky, you should know, he came with me." ”

"Hello, Comrade Rokossovsky!"

"Hello, General Goldov!"

After Zhukov waited for the two to shake hands, he frowned and asked, "It's too noisy here, is there a quieter place?" ”

"Yes, please come with me." Goldorff led the two of them to a room next door, lowered the curtain, and suddenly became much quieter.

Rokossovsky looked around and saw two marching beds in the corner of the house, which were supposed to be the resting place of the head of the front. In the middle of the room was a wooden table with a gas lamp on it, illuminating the room.

"Tell me, Comrade Goldov," Zhukov asked, after sitting down, looking at Goldov, "what is the current situation?" ”

"The situation is terrible, Comrade Deputy Commander-in-Chief." Gordorff pointed to the map on the table and explained the current situation to Zhukov: "The left flank of the Front is in the area of Reynok and Akatovka, attacking the enemy troops rushing from north Stalingrad to the Volga. The battle had been going on for three days, but our troops did not wait to repel the Germans. The enemy occupied the commanding heights, making our offensive difficult.

They opened a corridor in the middle of our line of defense, one end of which was immediately adjacent to the Volga River, the width of which did not exceed 10 km. To the north of the corridor are the motorized 14th and 60th divisions of the German tank army, and to the south are the 16th tank divisions and the 389th infantry division. Because the corridor is high and we are low, it is not possible to see its entire depth. ”

"How are you going to cut off the corridor that the Germans have opened?" Zhukov asked coldly.

Gordorff did not perceive Zhukov's abnormality, shrugged his shoulders and said to himself: "What else can be done, of course, is to order the troops to continue the offensive until the passage established by the enemy is cut off." ”

After hearing Goldov's perfunctory explanation, Rokossovsky's dissatisfaction with him became more and more intense. He had felt guilty that he had been sent to take over the post of Gordorf, who, in any case, had commanded the troops here for so long, if not without merit. But at this moment, I found that in the face of the stubborn defense of the German army, he was still stubbornly using rigid tactics, which would only make more and more commanders and fighters lose their lives in vain. Rokossovsky thought to himself that if it were possible, it would be better to remove him now, let me take his place, and cut off this corridor that the Germans had built.

Zhukov did not wait for Gordorf to finish his defense, then interrupted him, and said with a blank face: "Take us to the area where the battle is taking place." ”

Hearing Zhukov say this, Gordorf's mouth suddenly opened wide in surprise. After a long time, he said in a slur manner: "Comrade Deputy Commander, it is too dangerous there, let's wait here for the battle report from the front!" ”

"We need to go to the front and see for ourselves how the Germans are defending." Zhukov said in a stiff tone: "Prepare to go immediately!" ”

An hour later, Zhukov and Rokossovsky, led by Goldov, came to an observation post about 800 meters from the battlefield. At this moment, there was a fierce battle going on in front of me, and I saw that about a battalion of Soviet soldiers, under the cover of seven or eight tanks, was attacking the German positions.

Rokossovsky saw through the telescope that the slope was littered with destroyed tanks and the corpses of fallen commanders and fighters. The new attacking force, along the road paved with the corpses of its comrades, continued to charge the enemy without hesitation.

The enemy's firepower condescendingly blocked the path of the Soviet commanders and fighters, and the dense fire swept down the commanders and fighters who followed the tanks in pieces. The tanks, which accompanied the infantry charge, brought the German fire to the position fiercely, and hurriedly stopped on the spot, turned the muzzle, and opened fire on the exposed fire point.

As soon as the enemy's fire point was destroyed, the tank continued to rush forward. At this moment, several columns of mud rose up on the slope, and Rokossovsky, based on his own experience, knew that the German artillery was firing. He saw that the explosion point was not far from the tank, guessed that it might be the German anti-tank guns firing, and hurriedly searched for the location of the enemy's artillery.

After a careful search, he finally found that the German artillery was deployed on a high ground on the side, and they were striking from the side those tanks that rushed up the slope. Under their frantic fire, as soon as the Soviet tanks rushed up the slope, they would be hit directly by the bombs, and billowing smoke would come out.

After seeing the attacking troops retreating, Goldov grabbed the phone next to him, and after connecting the division commander of the division, he scolded angrily: "Colonel, you and your subordinates are a bunch of fools, and after three days of fighting, you can't even take a single high ground of the enemy." I'll give you one last chance, and in five minutes, organize another attack, and if you can't take the high ground, shoot yourself in the head with a pistol. ”

When Goldov put down the phone, Rokossovsky slowly spoke: "The Germans have deployed a side position on the right side of the high ground, which can easily destroy the tanks covering the troops. As soon as our tanks were destroyed by artillery fire, the Germans who held on to the frontal position could easily destroy our infantry who had lost the cover of their tanks. Therefore, in order to take the high ground, it was necessary to attack from two directions at the same time, one to continue to attack the German frontal positions, and the other to attack the German artillery positions on the right. ”

After waiting for Rokossovsky to finish speaking, Zhukov turned his gaze to Gordorf and said: "Comrade Gordov, the main reason why the battle you commanded did not achieve results was that the campaign was not well organized, and before you had time to organize coordination between the troops, you hurriedly entered the battle. And most of the troops were not fully prepared and went into battle one by one. ”

In response to Zhukov's criticism, Goldov hurriedly defended himself, saying: "Comrade Deputy Commander-in-Chief, you should understand that the time left to us by our superiors for the preparation of the campaign is seriously insufficient, and I cannot change the time of the scheduled offensive, so I can only put the troops into battle in echelons. ”

"Comrade Gordorf, I now officially announce to you the order of the base camp. With immediate effect, you have been dismissed from the post of commander of the Stalingrad Front and reappointed commander of the 33rd Army. As for the commander of the Front," Zhukov, after announcing Gordov's appointment and dismissal, turned his attention to Rokossovsky: "Comrade Rokossovsky will be in charge." ”