The final German assault on Stalingrad ended in a feint by the 66th Army in the rear, and the battle lines on both sides calmed down again, with no major battles taking place every day, except for the sporadic gunfire of snipers. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

In order to ensure the success of Operation Uranus, the Soviets initiated strict secrecy measures. All orders concerning the content of the counteroffensive can only be communicated verbally, and must be communicated directly to the executor himself. The concentration of the base camp reserves and the movement of the Front troops could only be carried out at night, so as not to be detected by the Germans.

On November 15, the three commanders of the Front, who had taken part in the counteroffensive, received a notice from Moscow that they should immediately arrive at the Kremlin for an emergency military meeting.

When Rokossovsky and the three arrived in the Kremlin, they were taken to Stalin's office by the officers who had been waiting outside the building, where the meeting had been going on for a long time. At this moment, the Chief of the General Staff, Vasilevsky, on behalf of the General Staff, is reporting to the base camp on the plan for the major counteroffensive under Stalingrad.

After Rokossovsky sat down in the vacant seat next to Zhukov, he turned his body to look at Vasilevsky, who was talking incessantly: "...... At present, the strength of the German army has not changed in any way, and the main forces of Paulus's 6th Army and Hort's 4th Tank Army are still pinned down in the protracted fighting in the city. On the flanks of these two army groups, the Romanian army with low combat effectiveness was still deployed......

…… In the direction in which our army is about to make a surprise attack, we have gained absolute superiority over the enemy in terms of strength due to the increase in base camp reserves and troops in secondary directions. ……

…… At the beginning of the campaign, according to the predetermined plan, General Vatutin's Southwestern Front would be the main attacker, and they now had everything necessary to accomplish this task. ”

Vatutin, who was sitting on Rokossovsky's left side, had a big smile on his face when he heard Vasilevsky say this, because the task of rescuing Stalingrad from the encirclement of the enemy would be done by his troops, and such a feat would go down in history.

Vasilevsky continued: "According to our plan, at the end of the third day of the campaign or in the early morning of the fourth day, the tank and mechanized units of the Southwestern Front and the Stalingrad Front will meet in the Karachi area. Their division will be the main group of German troops in the Stalingrad area, and they will be encircled by our army. ”

Voroshilov, who was sitting opposite Rokossovsky, heard this and couldn't help but interject and ask: "Comrade Vasilevsky, I would like to ask, what day is the time of our counteroffensive?" ”

Hearing this, Vasilevsky habitually looked at Stalin's position, and only after seeing that the other side bowed slightly, did he reply: "According to the offensive plan, the Southwestern Front and the Don Front must begin their offensive on November 19; General Yeremenko's Stalingrad Front launched an offensive on 20 November. ”

Next, the rest of the members of the base camp raised their questions to Vasilevsky, and the chief of the General Staff patiently explained them to everyone.

In the evening, this important military meeting finally ended. Just as Rokossovsky wanted to leave the conference room with the others, he heard Stalin calling him: "Zhukov, Vasilevsky, and Rokossovsky stay, and the rest can leave." ”

Seeing that Stalin left himself with two other important tasks, Rokossovsky couldn't help but wonder a little, saying that if Stalin left himself behind to discuss the matter of "Operation Uranus", then it was right that Vatutin and Yeremenko should also be left behind, why should he be left alone?

While he was wondering, Stalin got up and walked to his desk, picked up something, returned to the conference table, threw it down, and said angrily: "Look at this thing." ”

Rokossovsky looked down and saw that what Stalin had thrown on the table turned out to be a letter. Seeing this situation, Zhukov and Vasilevsky were also confused, and the two looked at each other, both of them saw doubts in each other's eyes. Zhukov reached out and picked up the letter on the table, pulled out the letterhead from the envelope and unfolded it.

After he finished reading, he casually handed it to Vasilevsky next to him, looked up at Stalin, who was walking back and forth with a pipe in his mouth, and asked puzzledly: "Comrade Stalin, I don't understand why he wrote such a letter." ”

After reading the letter, Vasilevsky handed the letterhead to Rokossovsky, and at the same time said with a blank face: "Comrade Rokossovsky, look, this is a letter from your subordinates to the State Defense Committee. ”

Hearing that it was a letter written by his subordinates, Rokossovsky hurriedly took the letterhead and quickly scanned it. The first thing he looked at was the following signature: Vasily Timofeevich Volsky. The name was familiar to Rokossovsky, the commander of the 4th Mechanized Army, who had just been transferred to the Don Front two weeks earlier. The troops under his command served as an important assault mission in the upcoming campaign. But what does he say in his letter to the National Defense Council? Rokossovsky became more and more curious.

After reading the entire letter, Rokossovsky was surprised by its contents. It turned out that Volysky was asking for a postponement or a complete cancellation of the upcoming campaign. In his letter, he emphasized: In view of the comparison of the forces and technical equipment of the enemy and ours, I believe that the campaign that is about to be launched will not only not succeed, but on the contrary may fail disastrously. As a loyal party member, he asked the National Defense Committee to immediately examine in detail whether the decisions made in the campaign were correct and to request that the campaign be postponed or canceled.

Rokossovsky put down the letterhead in his hand, looked at Stalin with a displeased face, and defended himself: "Comrade Stalin, General Volisky and the 4th Mechanized Army under his command were transferred to our Front just two weeks ago. As far as I know, during this time, the general was constantly preparing for the campaign. He never raised any objections, either to the campaign as a whole or to the combat missions assigned to them. At the meeting of the front army just two days ago, he also said in public that his troops would resolutely accomplish the tasks we had assigned, and stressed to us that his troops would maintain high morale and strong combat effectiveness, and would certainly be able to make meritorious contributions in battle. ”

After listening to Rokossovsky's explanation, the expression on Stalin's face softened, he stopped, looked at the three people sitting at the conference table and asked: "What do you think should be done with this commander?" ”

"Does that need to be said?" Zhukov, who was a little impatient, was the first to say: "Such vacillating elements should be immediately transferred from the Don Front, so as not to affect the offensive campaign that we are about to launch." ”

"I also agree with Comrade Zhukov." Vasilevsky, who spoke next, also expressed the same opinion as Zhukov: "Continuing to keep him in the army will cause confusion in the minds of our commanders and fighters, which will be very unfavorable to the next campaign we will conduct." ”

Although Rokossovsky's heart was very much about cleaning up this general who made small reports from his own troops. But seeing that Stalin turned his gaze to himself, looked at himself noncommittally and asked: "And what about you, Comrade Rokossovsky, what do you think?" ”

"I think it's because I left him in the army." Rokossovsky said insincerely.

"Why, Comrade Rokossovsky?" When Stalin heard Rokossovsky say this, he immediately asked with interest: "Can you tell me your reasons?" ”

"Comrade Stalin," Rokossovsky hurriedly replied: "In a few days, we will launch an offensive against the German army, and the 4th Mechanized Army is one of the main forces of our army. ”

After listening to this, Stalin nodded, turned around and walked to his desk, took off his pipe and put it on the ashtray, then took the microphone and put it to his ear, and said slowly: "Give me the command of the 4th Mechanized Army, find General Volsky!" ”

Rokossovsky and Zhukov were surprised to see that Stalin had personally called Volysky. But everyone did not speak, but looked at Stalin quietly, wanting to hear what he and Volysky were going to talk about.

After the phone was connected, Stalin smiled into the microphone and said: "Is it Comrade Volsky?" I'm Stalin, and I've already read that letter you wrote to the State Defense Committee. …… Very well written, before we go on a big offensive campaign, we just need to listen to different opinions! …… But you have to worry too much, we are fully equipped to defeat the German army, and this offensive battle will definitely be victorious......"

When Stalin had finished his long phone call, he said to the three subordinates who were still sitting on the left: "I have already talked to Comrade Volsky, and he also realized his mistake and said that he must complete the tasks assigned to them by his superiors. ”

Zhukov, waiting for Stalin to finish, immediately asked: "Then what should we do with him, should we remove him from his post, or let him remain in his current position?" ”

Stalin set his eyes on Rokossovsky and said with a smile: "Rokossovsky has just said that when the battle is about to begin, the replacement of high-ranking military commanders will affect the combat effectiveness of the troops. I couldn't agree more with him, so let Volysky continue to be his commander. ”

Just as Rokossovsky was secretly breathing a sigh of relief, he heard Stalin say another sentence: "Comrade Rokossovsky, you have to give me a special report on the performance of the army and Volysky in battle." Do you understand? ”

Rokossovsky understood in his heart that when Stalin said this, he was ready to settle accounts with Volynsky, who was against the attack, and quickly replied loudly: "Understood, Comrade Stalin, I will regularly report to you on the combat performance of the 4th Mechanized Army." ”

After listening to Rokossovsky's answer, Stalin nodded with satisfaction, then waved his hand at Rokossovsky and said: "Okay, there is nothing for you to do here, you go back first!" ”

According to Rokossovsky's idea, after the military meeting, he spent the night in Moscow and took time to meet Borisova or Serova to relieve the pain of lovesickness. But now something like this happened, he suddenly lost interest, and as soon as he left the Kremlin, he immediately drove to the airport and returned to the front headquarters overnight.

Seeing that Rokossovsky had returned to the headquarters so quickly, Malinin, Kirichen, and the others couldn't help but feel very strange, and immediately gathered around to inquire about the reason.

Rokossovsky looked around, and saw that in addition to a few front commanders, there were only two signal soldiers sitting in front of the walkie-talkie on duty, so he ordered the two: "You go out first." ”

After the communications corpsmen left, Rokossovsky told Malinin and the others what had happened in Moscow today. After hearing this, Kirichchenko was so angry that he slammed his fist on the table, and said angrily: "Didn't he write such a letter to the National Defense Committee to shake the morale of the army, how can we still let him continue to stay in the position of army commander, I think he should be removed from his post immediately." ”

"Let him remain in the post of army commander, it is Comrade Stalin's meaning." After Rokossovsky said this, a thought suddenly popped into his mind, feeling that it would be a little too abrupt to send someone to spy on Volisky, but if the political commissar of the mechanized army, that is, the military commissar, was in charge of this matter, it would be much easier and would not attract attention. So he hurriedly said to Kirichchenko: "Comrade Military Commissar, I have something I want to trouble you...... and then he explained his thoughts to Kirichchenko in detail.

After listening to this, Kirichko immediately expressed his position and said: "Don't worry, tomorrow morning I will go to the 4th Mechanized Army and talk to the military commissar of the army, so that he can take up the burden of supervising the operation of the troops." We must not allow this panicked commander to drag us back from the entire campaign. ”

After talking about how to spy on Volysky, Rokossovsky turned the conversation to the upcoming offensive campaign. Pointing to the map, Malinin said to Rokossovsky: "Comrade commander, on the right flank of our army are units of the 21st, 65th and 24th armies. In front of the 21st Army, the Romanian Army, which is extremely weak in combat, can be used as the focus of the offensive, as long as the first breakthrough can be achieved here, then the troops of the 21st Army can detour back to the enemy's flank and rear, and assist the troops of the 65th Army to break through the German defense in front of the ......"