Not long after, Moder made contact with General Gaman, the commander of the city defense of Bobruisk. After revealing his identity, Moder said straight to the point: "General Gaman, your current situation is very dangerous, and you must find a way to stand out from the Russian defense. ”

"Your Excellency," Garman, apparently unaware of the danger he faced, explained to Moder, "if we abandon the city, the 35th Army, southeast of the city, will be isolated, so I suggest that we wait until we have joined up with our allies before taking a breakout action, and we will break the Russian encirclement with certainty." ”

"The situation is urgent, General Garman." Moder said in a stern tone: "You immediately prepare for a breakthrough, and I will immediately call the commander of the 35th Army, General von Ruetsov, and order them to move closer to you immediately." ”

As soon as Gaman put down the phone, he called his chief of staff to him and said to him: "Chief of staff, if my judgment is correct, the Russians will soon attack our city. Now I order you that the troops have already built barricades, set up firing points in buildings, and ambushed tanks at the crossroads, and we will teach the Russians who dare to storm Bobruisk a lesson that will never be forgotten. ”

"Understood, Your Excellency, Commander." The chief of staff hurriedly replied: "I immediately give an order to the troops to strengthen the defenses of the city to resist a possible attack by the Russians." ”

After Moder ended his call with Gaman, he realized that if the troops besieged by the Soviets southeast of Bobruisk did not break through, Gaman would not easily abandon the city. So he called his old subordinate, von Ruetsof, commander of the 35th Army.

When Ruetsov heard Moder's voice, he immediately asked excitedly: "Your Excellency, the situation here is very bad, and the Russians have surrounded us. In order to prevent us from being annihilated, I strongly ask you to allow us to break through immediately. ”

"General Ruthsof, I am calling you to inform you to break out immediately." "You must break through at all costs," said Moder, "to withdraw your troops to Bobruisk and join General Gaman's troops; If this is not possible, turn north and break through to Pogorere in order to join up with the 4th Army there. ”

As Moder's old subordinate, Ruetsov carried out Moder's orders very simply. In the shortest possible time, he gathered several of his division commanders and said to them: "Gentlemen of division commanders, I have just received an order from Marshal Moder. He ordered our troops, while the encirclement of the Russians was not tight enough, to carry out a breakthrough operation decisively. Do you have any questions? ”

"Your Excellency, General." After Ruthsov had finished briefing his men on the route to break out, a division commander stood up and asked, "What about our tanks and artillery?" The road we broke through could not use such technical equipment. ”

"Blow them all up." To the division commander's question, Ruetsov replied very dryly: "Even if we can't take these technical equipment, we can't leave them to the Russians, so we have to blow them all up." ”

…………

The Germans, having blown up all the technical equipment, rushed with all their might to the area controlled by General Bakharov's 9th Tank Army, in an attempt to open a breakthrough from here. In order to prevent the Germans from breaking through, Bakharov hurriedly called Gorbatov for help: "Comrade commander, the enemy is beginning to break through, I have only three tank brigades, a motorized brigade and an artillery regiment, and I will definitely not be able to block such a ferocious attack of the enemy, I hope you can send troops to support as soon as possible." ”

Hearing that the tank army's defense area was attacked by the Germans, Gorbatov did not bother to ask Rokossovsky for instructions, so he immediately sent Teremov's 108th Infantry Division to cooperate with the tank army for defense.

In order to escape the fate of annihilation, the Germans launched a fierce attack on the defense areas of the 9th Tank Army and the 108th Infantry Division. In the face of the swarming German troops, the Soviet troops, who were on the defensive, used tank guns and artillery bombardment from a distance, and machine gun fire at close range, trying to block their attack.

In order to break through the encirclement of the Soviet army, the Germans behaved extremely stubbornly, and their stragglers formed a formation like a wave, one after another pounced on the Soviet defensive positions. The soldiers in front were knocked down, and the soldiers in the back immediately stepped on the corpses of their robes and continued to advance.

Some of the new fighters, who had never seen such a formation, were frightened by the sight of the enemy rushing towards them like crazy, and they pulled the trigger with their trembling hands, but the bullets flew somewhere.

An hour after the start of the battle, Gorbatov called Teremov and asked with concern: "Comrade Colonel, how is the situation there, have you blocked the enemy?" ”

"Yes, Comrade Commander." Colonel Teremov, who was standing at the observation post, looked at the Germans who were charging towards his position, and replied: "We have managed to control both sides of the road to Mogilev, and the Germans are launching a stubborn offensive. ”

"Stubborn offense?" When Gorbatov heard this word used by Teremov, he could not help but ask curiously: "Comrade Colonel, tell me, how tenacious are they?" ”

"Comrade commander, an earth-shattering noise and sky-pounding fire broke out at the German garrison." Teremov replied with some panic: "After our reconnaissance, it turned out that the Germans blew up tanks, artillery, burned cars and villages. In order to break through our line of defense, they organized assault forces and launched an offensive against us.

The German offensive against the 444th and 407th regiments in the area of Titovka was the most frenzied, with at least 2,000 enemy officers and men, supported by strong artillery fire, rushing towards our positions.

When the attacking enemy advanced to about 700 meters from our position, our artillery opened fire, and at a distance of about 400 meters, the guns began to strafe, but the enemy still moved forward without hesitation. Shells exploded in enemy piles. Under the roar of machine guns, the enemy fell in rows. But the fascists walked on the corpses of their own soldiers. They have reached the point of desperation in order to open a pathway. I think it's a kind of irrational shock, and they don't have the slightest hint of the selfless sacrifice of the soldiers, but are in a kind of semi-numbness. The march of this large group of soldiers was not so much a force trying to subjugate the enemy by its own will at all costs, but rather the animal stubbornness of a herd of livestock. But the sight was truly thrilling. ”

Such a battle report quickly reached the command of the Front, and after reading this telegram, Rokossovsky and Zhukov both showed contemptuous expressions on their faces: "It seems that this is the last madness of the German army, and it will not be long before they will be completely wiped out by us." ”

Rokossovsky instructed Malinin: "Chief of Staff, call Romanenko and Batov and order the 48th and 65th armies to speed up their actions, compress the encirclement, and destroy this besieged enemy as soon as possible." ”

After the assignment was completed, Rokossovsky received another report from the Air Force. Rudenko said loudly: "Comrade commander, according to the reconnaissance of the aircraft, the German army has massed a large number of infantry, tanks, artillery and other technical equipment in the area of Dubovka. I would like to ask, what should we do? ”

"Needless to say, General Rudenko." Rokossovsky heard Rudenko's report that he had discovered the area where the German troops were gathering troops and technical equipment, and hurriedly instructed him: "Immediately order all planes that can hang bombs to take off and go to the Dubovka area, and carry out saturation bombing on the enemy there to completely lose their combat effectiveness." ”

"Understood, Comrade Commander." Rudenko replied very dryly: "I immediately ordered the bomber formation to take off and go to Dubovka to bomb the enemy." ”

Half an hour later, Rudenko called Rokossovsky again and reported to him: "Comrade commander, we have more than 500 planes taking off simultaneously from more than a dozen field airfields and are heading towards the Dubovka area. ”

"More than 500?" Rokossovsky was taken aback by the figures reported by Rudenko, he thought that he could dispatch one or two hundred planes, which was already the limit, but he did not expect Rudenko to actually dispatch so many planes. After a moment of distraction, he said in an approving tone: "Good General Rudenko, when this battle is over, I will definitely ask for credit for you." ”

When Zhukov learned that more than 500 planes were involved in the bombing, he also showed a look of surprise on his face: "My God, more than 500 planes are going to bomb an area at the same time, and I think that even the most powerful German army will collapse in our high-density bombing." ”

Rokossovsky felt a faint sense of loss in his heart, and now that his position is getting higher and higher, there are fewer and fewer opportunities to command operations at the front, and many fierce battles can only be understood through the results reported by various units. For example, this time, more than 500 planes went to bomb the German troops assembled in the Dubovka area, and he could only learn about the results of the battle according to the battle report, but could not see the magnificent scene with his own eyes.

The German troops that are assembling in Dubovka may never have dreamed that they would be attacked by the Soviet air, and it was a super-large-scale saturation bombing, you must know that it was the German air force that bombed the Soviet army before, but I didn't expect that now the feng shui is turning, and it is their turn to be bombed again.

When the bombs whistled down from the sky, the German officers and men hiding in the forest thought they were safe, and when they saw the explosions around them, and the thick trees were cut by shrapnel flying in all directions in the smoke and firelight, they ran out of the forest and scurried around like headless flies in the open field outside. Some soldiers even jumped into the Berezina River in an attempt to swim to the opposite bank, but the rushing water quickly swallowed up the soldiers swimming in the river.

The air raid lasted for an hour, and the Soviet planes in the air gradually decreased. However, the area where the Germans had been assembled was already shrouded in flames and smoke. The scouts sent by the Soviet army tried to check the effects of the bombing, but were blocked by the heat of the flames. It wasn't until that night that the fire in the forest was extinguished. The scouts braved the heat to enter the bombed area, only to find that it had turned into a huge purpose—German corpses burned like charcoal bars everywhere, and all kinds of technical equipment that had been twisted and deformed by the explosion.

The battle southeast of Bobruisk lasted for two days, and under the combined attack of the three armies, the German 35th Army was completely annihilated, more than 10,000 people were killed and blown up, and more than 6,000 were taken prisoner. The Soviets also captured 432 artillery pieces, 250 mortars, and more than 1,000 machine guns.

With the annihilation of the German army group southeast of Bobruisk, the next task is to liberate the city of Bobruisk and completely eliminate the German army in the city.

Before the siege began, Rokossovsky made a special call to Batov, who had copied the attack, and asked bluntly: "General Batov, your troops have just gone through a fierce battle, and the commanders and fighters should be very tired. Do you think it's better to give them two days off and then attack Bobruisk? ”

Batov, who was at the beginning of the war, heard Rokossovsky ask, and hurriedly said tactfully: "Thank you, Comrade Commander, for your kindness, but our army's morale is high, and we can continue to attack without stopping to rest." Now that we find that some of the scattered German troops are withdrawing into the city one after another, we must take advantage of the favorable opportunity for them to recover and launch a decisive attack to completely destroy the enemy in the city. ”

"Since you are so confident, then I am relieved." Although Rokossovsky agreed with Batov's offensive plan, he still asked a little uneasily: "I wonder which unit you plan to send to take on the main attack mission?" ”

"I intend to send Banov's 1st Guards Tank Army and 105th Infantry Army." Batov confidently said: "I believe that with just these two troops, Bobruisk can be liberated from the Germans." ”

"General Banov's 1st Guards Tank Army, in recent battles, has really performed well." After listening to this, Rokossovsky bowed his head slightly and said in agreement: "General Batov, I believe that they will also make meritorious deeds that will inspire us in the battle for the liberation of Bobruisk. ”

After getting Rokossovsky's approval, Batov hurriedly issued combat orders to his two commanders who were capable of fighting well, and asked them to take advantage of the favorable opportunity after dark when the German army was negligent in guarding against it, and decisively launched an attack on Bobruisk.

Regrettably, the tanks of the 1st Guards Tank Army had just stormed the city, and they were hit by anti-tank weapons from buildings on both sides of the street, and two new T-34 tanks were destroyed, and they were parked in the middle of the road with billowing smoke.