In a relatively intact building in the city of Klin, I called a meeting of all the commanders at and above the regimental level to plan the next move, but a phone call from Zhukov disrupted my plans.

"Leda, I know you've recaptured Klin, and I congratulate you." Zhukov said in a deep voice on the phone: "But for now, I need you to immediately transfer troops south to support Rokossovsky's 16th Army." The 17th Infantry Brigade and the 44th Cavalry Division, which belonged to the group army, were repeatedly fighting with the enemy in the area of Lyalovo and Kryukovo, and even white-knuckle battles were taking place, but unfortunately, for the time being, the enemy was not driven out of these areas. ”

After Zhukov hung up the phone, I hesitated again and again, thinking that I should report the matter to Vlasov immediately, because Zhukov's move was suspected of overstepping the command after all. In the past, when I was only a division commander, as long as a commander with a higher rank than me gave an order, I had to obey it. Now with a different identity, he commands several troops of various arms from different places, and he thinks about the problem from a different angle.

After receiving my report, Vlasov was silent on the phone for a long time before he replied leisurely: "Since Comrade General has given the order, then you can carry it out!" However......" he specifically instructed: "The establishment of reinforcements must not affect the combat effectiveness of the troops remaining in Kling." They will also be used in the attack on Botovo. In addition to leading the Eighth Division, you should also draw a tank brigade and a cannon regiment. The troops in Kling were temporarily placed under the command of Colonel Gryaznov of the 7th Division. That's all, you go and set it up. ”

So I handed over command of the troops in Kling to Colonel Gryaznov, and at the same time telegraphed the Kaliev Tank Brigade, the Leutov Cavalry Regiment, and the Ski Brigade, which were pursuing the enemy, to halt their advance, and to defend themselves in place until further orders were given, and then I led the 8th Division, the Tank Brigade, and the Cannon Regiment out of the city and marched south to the aid of Rokossovsky.

The tank brigade opened the way in front, the cannon regiment of artillery pulled by trucks followed, and the 8th Guards Division, which I led, was behind the most luke. Because there was not enough transport, the fighters were half by car and half on foot.

Sixty kilometers of road, we drove for almost two hours before approaching our destination. At one o'clock in the afternoon, the tank brigade that had opened the way in front came to report that it had reached the Kryukovo area, where German defensive positions had been discovered, and German soldiers operating in the trenches could be clearly seen with binoculars.

I ordered them to spread out in place first, not to attack for the time being, and to wait for the arrival of artillery and infantry. At the same time, the signal corps was ordered to give orders to the artillery regiment and ask them to speed up the march.

Five minutes later, I had already reached the location of the tank brigade. While the cannon was arranging the position, I took the staff officers, the communications corps, and Yushchenko to find a high place, raised the binoculars, and looked at the enemy's defensive positions.

The enemy's position was arranged in a large open field that stretched out to the horizon, consisting of two trenches one kilometer apart, and the middle section was divided by cobweb-like trenches and communication trenches. The damaged tanks and armored transports in front of the positions all looked black. I made a point of checking the markings on the tanks, and the ones that were damaged were all German technical equipment. One can imagine how stubbornly the Germans resisted our troops when they seized this position.

The arrival of our troops was undoubtedly noticed by the Germans, who were moving a large number of infantry and all kinds of heavy weapons into the trenches in the direction of us through the communication trenches. The German soldiers who entered the position put their rifles and submachine guns on the edge of the trench and were ready to shoot at our troops at any time.

The commander of the cannon regiment reported to me on a walkie-talkie that the artillery positions had been arranged and were ready for battle. I nodded, and then gave the order to open fire on the enemy's positions.

Soon, the artillery regiment fired a round of shells, with a sharp whistling sound, and after drawing arcs in the air, it accurately landed on the enemy's position.

The huge air wave generated by the explosion lifted the snow on the German position, frightened all the German soldiers who were still running in the communication trenches bent down, and even those soldiers who were waiting for the battle also crouched down to avoid the shelling of our troops.

The explosion continued incessantly, and the flying snowflakes and the scorched earth kept falling on the heads of the German soldiers, and they could no longer see their swaying figures in the trenches, and in the face of such shelling, they could only crouch in place, desperately trying to hide themselves more safely.

The shelling went on for a quarter of an hour, and I had the communications corpsman call through the channel of the commander of the tank brigade, and then decisively gave him the order to attack.

When the tank brigade commander heard my order, he was silent, and after a few seconds he cautiously asked: "Comrade Chief of Staff, our artillery is still bombarding the positions of the German army, do you see if our brigade will attack again when the shelling stops." ”

I knew that this style of play was beyond the scope of what he had learned in the military academy, and because of the urgency of time, I didn't bother to explain it to him in detail, but simply said: "The tank brigade will attack immediately, this is an order!" ”

The tank brigade commander had no choice but to reluctantly agree: "Yes! Guaranteed to get the job done"

I then spoke to the commander of the artillery regiment and asked him to extend the artillery fire to the rear of the enemy after the tank brigade had attacked.

With the roar of rumbling motors, a large number of our tanks appeared on the vast snow, and rushed towards the German positions in a neat formation, while the infantry of the 8th Division arrived by vehicle followed and charged with the tank group in a straggler formation.

At a distance of one kilometer, the tank can reach it in only two or three minutes. When our tanks approached a hundred meters in front of the German positions, the enemy's counterattack began, and the surviving mortars desperately fired at the tanks. However, this small-caliber gun did little damage to our tanks, even if they could not blow up the tanks during the mission.

Seeing that the mortar attack was ineffective, immediately a German soldier jumped out of the trench with two anti-tank mines in his hand and rushed towards our tanks. Just as he was approaching the leading tank, a tank shell flew over from somewhere, landed next to him and exploded, and then the air wave lifted him four or five meters away, and the person was motionless after landing, and it is estimated that he was seriously injured even if he was not dead.

Our tanks soon rushed over the trenches to the rear of the Germans. From time to time, German soldiers poked out of the trenches and threw anti-tank mines and Molotov cocktails at the tanks from behind. An unlucky tank was immediately hit, blaze with fire erupting from its body, and continued to drive a while before stopping.

"That's Major Malafeyev's tank!" Captain Yushchenko, who was standing next to him, suddenly shouted.

I moved the telescope to the burning tank, and as soon as the tank stopped, two tankmen covered in fire came out of it, jumped out of the tank, and rolled on the ground, extinguishing the flames that had burned the tank suits. He then pulled out the pistol he was carrying with him and fired at the German soldier who came out. One tanker was quickly shot and fell, and the other, having knocked down two enemies, picked up a submachine gun and jumped out of the trench.

The soldiers of the Guards Division had already rushed into the trenches of the first line of German defense and were fighting with the enemy with bayonets. Although the soldiers were constantly knocked down by German submachine guns or machine guns as they approached the trenches, they continued to rush forward one after another.

With the passage of time, the superiority of our army in terms of technical equipment and numbers began to appear, and infantry constantly rushed to the enemy's positions. The shelling of our troops has stopped, and the tanks of the tank brigade have rushed to the trenches of the enemy's second line of defense. Those firing points, which pose a greater threat to our troops, are being destroyed one after another under tank fire.

Under the powerful offensive of our army, the soldiers on the German positions are dying one by one, the will to resist is being destroyed by our troops little by little, and the gunfire fired at our soldiers has become sub-zero.

Seeing that the enemy was gone, I called the tank brigade commander again and ordered him to shout to the Germans through the horn on the car, so that the remnants of the German army would stop resisting, immediately lay down their arms and surrender to our troops, and if the Germans continued to resist stubbornly, they would be resolutely destroyed.

After hearing the shouts of our army, the German army, which had long lost its fighting spirit, knew that there was no point in fighting any longer, so they stopped resisting one after another and obediently surrendered to our army.