After listening to what I had to say, Stalin asked with interest: "Leda, tell me, how did you judge that the German army did not have the ability to launch a large-scale campaign?" You must know that they have just defeated our hundreds of thousands of troops, and their morale is high, even if there is no new reinforcement of troops and weapons and equipment, they can continue to advance into the depth of our army's defense. ”

After a little thought, I replied: "Comrade Stalin, after a long period of fighting, not only are the officers and men very tired, but there is also an extreme shortage of all kinds of military supplies necessary for the battle. In this case, they had to halt their offensive in order to consolidate their existing defensive strips and to take a short break. ”

My answer, apparently, did not satisfy Stalin. He stood up, his pipe in his mouth, and paced slowly around the room, as if thinking about something. And I didn't dare to take it lightly, my eyes stayed on him, moving with his movements.

When I saw him stop and slowly turn towards me, I guessed that he might have something to ask me, so I quickly stood up. He turned around, saw me get up from my seat, and pointed at me with the finger he was holding his pipe, ready to ask me a question.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Stalin and I looked in the same direction from which the voice came, and saw Boskrebeshev standing straight by the open door. Seeing that we noticed him, he hurriedly said: "Comrade Stalin, General Rokossovsky has arrived!" ”

"Let him in!" After Stalin said this, he walked to the door.

Shortly after Boskrebeshev exited the door, Rokossovsky, dressed in military uniform, walked in. As soon as you enter the door. He raised his hand and saluted Stalin, who appeared in front of him. At the same time, he said politely: "Hello." Comrade Stalin, I was ordered to report to you, to listen to your orders, please instruct! ”

Stalin switched the pipe to his left hand, then with his right hand he pulled Rokossovsky's hand down from his forehead, held it tightly, shook it vigorously and said enthusiastically: "Welcome, Comrade Rokossovsky. ”

I saw Rokossovsky and Stalin walking side by side towards me. I hurriedly smiled and raised my hand to salute him, and took the initiative to greet him: "Hello, Comrade Commander of the Front Army. ”

He returned the salute, then walked over and shook my hand and said kindly, "Hello, Leda." I heard that you are hospitalized, and I was planning to see you in two days, but I didn't expect to meet you here today. ”

"All right, Comrade Rokossovsky, when you have time later. Let's catch up with each other. Stalin interrupted our conversation and urged: "First tell me about the situation of the Central Front." ”

Rokossovsky heard Stalin say this. Hurriedly straightened up and respectfully reported: "Comrade Stalin, the Central Front, from February 25 to today, carried out an offensive campaign in the Shevsk direction, advanced 30-60 kilometers, managed to approach Shevsk and cut off the railway line of Bryansk + Konotop......"

During the more than half a month that I was hospitalized for surgery, I was in a state of isolation most of the time, although Bezikov occasionally came to tell me some of the latest war reports. At this moment, hearing Rokossovsky reporting to Stalin, I concentrated and listened carefully to every word he said.

After listening to his report, Stalin asked: "Comrade Rokossovsky, do you think that in the current situation we can concentrate the forces of several fronts and carry out a counterattack on the German troops that have just occupied Kharkov?" ”

As soon as his words fell, Rokossovsky shook his head like a rattle: "No, Comrade Stalin, it is not the right time for us to attack now, after all, it will only weaken our own strength in vain." At this point, he paused for a moment, and then, as if with great courage, said, "Before coming here, I received instructions from the base camp: immediately send the 21st Army to the Obyani area under the command of the commander of the Voronezh Front. It turned out that a significant number of enemy forces had broken through in the Kharkov and Belgorod directions, posing a threat of advancing towards Kursk.

Comrade Stalin, here I have to report to you that our situation is getting worse and worse, the combat units and logistics departments of the Front have not arrived for a long time, the problem of material supply has not been resolved, while the enemy forces have significantly strengthened their military forces against our Front, and the transfer of the 21st Army has completely turned the balance of forces against us. ”

After listening to Rokossovsky's words, Stalin did not immediately express his position, but turned to me and asked: "Leda, if you are asked to make a decision, what are you going to arrange?" ”

I did not panic in the slightest about Stalin's abrupt question, but said confidently: "Comrade Stalin, I think that the current task of the Central Front should be to immediately switch to the defensive. To be more accurate, my eyes looked at the map spread out on the table and read the names of places on it, "The fortified areas are Gorokishe, Lesser Arkhangelsk, Trosna, Lyudezez, Kolenevo." At the same time, the Central Front should be supplemented with the 48th Army of General Romenenko, the 13th Army of Puzhenv transferred from the Bryansk Front and the sectors it occupies, and the 60th Army of Chernyakhovsky and the sectors occupied by the Voronezh Front. ……”

Although the place in front of me did not indicate the location of each unit, I still cleverly described the deployment of the Soviet troops before the Battle of Kursk based on my own memory.

As soon as Stalin waited for me to finish, he asked Rokossovsky with a smile: "Dear Comrade Rokossovsky, is there anything else you would like to add?" ”

Rokossovsky first looked at me in surprise, and then replied: "Comrade Stalin, we must build a defense that the enemy cannot penetrate. The defense should be configured in depth and echelons, first of all, it should be able to defend against enemy tanks. We are well aware from the bitter lessons of previous battles that tanks will be massively used when the enemy launches an offensive. Therefore, we should first be prepared to deal with enemy tanks.

Also, the reason why we lost Kharkov and Belgorod so quickly. In my opinion, the reason for our failure was the lack of attention to the timely formation of reserves. When the enemy is attacking. We're running out of strength. The battle line stretched out in a long line. Stay away from the rear bases. Another reason is that our campaign strategic reconnaissance is too poor. In this way, it is possible for the enemy forces to form a large army group and make a sudden counter-assault while retreating, and we will not have the forces to repel its surprise. We have no battle reserves in the depth of our defense, which allows the enemy to break through our front in a narrow area and complete the encirclement of our army with almost no resistance. ”

Summing up Rokossovsky, Stalin's face showed a satisfied smile, he put his pipe in his mouth and said admiringly: "Not bad." Comrade Rokossovsky, you considered the issue very comprehensively. At present, in the middle of the enemy's defensive zone, an arc of two hundred kilometers long has appeared, and I intend to give the task of defending this arc to your Central Front and Vatutin's Voronezh Front. And in your rear, I will also deploy the troops of a newly formed reserve front. ”

"And tanks, Comrade Stalin." As soon as Rokossovsky waited for Stalin to finish speaking, he immediately said impatiently: "The German army is equipped with a new type of tank, and our anti-tank guns can fire armor-piercing shells even at a distance of 400 meters. It is also impossible to penetrate the armor of such a tank. ”

Hearing Rokossovsky say this, I understand in my heart. His troops must have also encountered the German Tiger tanks. Quickly set his eyes on Stalin to see what he would say next.

"Comrade Rokossovsky, you don't have to worry at all about this new tank of the German army." Stalin took his pipe out of his mouth, clutched it in his hand, and said slowly: "As early as the battle to break through the blockade of Leningrad was still going on, Zhukov reported to me that our artillery had destroyed a German tank, and the appearance of this tank was not very different from the model of tank we were familiar with. Moreover, after the tank was destroyed, the Hitler bandits tried in every possible way to tow it away from the destroyed position.

We were intrigued by this report and ordered a special detachment consisting of an infantry platoon and 4 tanks to capture the enemy tank and tow it to our positions for detailed study. To ensure the success of the operation, we also prepared powerful artillery fire, providing fire cover for the squad.

The detachment, led by the captain of the detachment, Captain Kosarev, began to carry out this combat mission after dark. The enemy constantly fired at the location of the destroyed tanks. However, the tank was towed back anyway. Even the broken tracks of the tank were picked up from the snow. The construction of the tank is truly unusual. It was found that it was a test sample of the new 'Tiger-I.' heavy tank, which was sent to the Volkhov front by Hitler's high command for testing.

Our experts conducted a comprehensive study of the captured tank and identified its vulnerable parts by means of experiments. The results of the study were sent to me just two days ago, and soon they will be communicated to all units of our army. In this way, in future battles, our tankmen and gunners will dare to fight it alone. ”

When I heard Stalin talk about the process of capturing the German Tiger tank, I couldn't help but think of the T-62 whose tracks were blown off by an anti-tank mine on a small island in the East, and the Soviets, in order to prevent this new type of tank from being snatched away, unfortunately covered the area where the tank was located with artillery fire until the wreckage of the tank sank into the water.

"Leda! Lida!! "I was so engrossed in my mind that Stalin called me twice before I heard it. Seeing that I was a little absent-minded, he said with some dissatisfaction: "You have been to the secret research institute and told Comrade Rokossovsky everything you know about tanks and anti-tank weapons. ”

I agreed, and then I told Rokossovsky about the top-secret information I knew: "Comrade Commander of the Front, let me tell you about some of the newly developed weapons of the Institute. The first is the assault rifle, a small weapon used by infantry, I think you should have seen it a long time ago, right? ”

There is a basis for me to ask this, because after Floning introduced this weapon, he sent it to the then 16th and 20th armies for a small number of commanders and fighters to try this new gun, so when introducing the new weapon, the assault rifle was first heard, so that Rokossovsky could have a perceptual understanding of the new weapons that were mentioned later.

Sure enough, after listening to my words, Rokossovsky nodded and said in affirmativeness: "Yes, I have seen this assault rifle, which combines the advantages of both the Mosin Nagant rifle and the Bobosha submachine gun. But there is one thing I don't understand, since this weapon has been researched a long time ago, why has it not been installed in the army after more than a year? ”

"The reason for the delay in the deployment of troops is because of the problem of ammunition." I saw Rokossovsky's blank expression and explained to him: "This assault rifle uses a short-barreled bullet, which cannot be mass-produced for the time being with our existing military production technology, so this assault rifle cannot be equipped with troops." ”

"And when will you be able to line up your troops?" Rokossovsky asked impatiently.

"At present, the institute has established a production line for short-barreled ammunition," I said in a calm tone, "and if nothing else, it will probably be two or three months before the troops can be deployed on a large scale." ”

As soon as I finished speaking, Rokossovsky asked: "Are there any new weapons besides assault rifles?" ”

"Yes." I went on to say: "Among the anti-tank weapons, a new anti-tank rocket launcher has been launched, which is not only smaller than the American Bazooka rocket launcher, but also easy to carry, and is not small in power, which can penetrate the frontal armor of German tanks at a distance of 200 meters. ”

Seeing the excitement on Rokossovsky's face when he heard this information, I threw out another "bombshell": "Also, the institute has developed a new tank. Compared to the German Tiger, it was thicker in armor and more powerful. According to the testers, the existing six tanks could easily deal with a German tank battalion. But I think what they say is not in line with the facts. ”

Rokossovsky was startled by my words, and he nervously asked: "What's the matter?" Can't you beat it at all? ”

I glanced at Stalin and saw him smoking a pipe with a smile on his face, and I knew that he knew something about the power of the new tank, and that Rokossovsky was the only one in the room who didn't know about it. "It's not that they can't beat it, but these researchers far underestimate the power of the new tank. Not to mention a tank battalion, even if it is a tank regiment, our six tanks can still achieve a complete victory. (To be continued......)

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