Half an hour later, I rode by car with Katukov and Yevremenko to the regimental headquarters of the 1073 regiment. Seeing our arrival, the regiment commander, Colonel Chistyakov, was taken aback, and he said in surprise: "Oh, my comrade division commander, why did you come to me?" It's too dangerous here, and the enemy may attack at any time, so you might as well go back to the division headquarters! ”

I waved my hand and said, "Comrade Regiment Commander, you don't have to worry about my safety. I'm not here to fool around, but to help you destroy the enemy. I turned to Chistyakov, pointed to the other two, and introduced him: "Comrade Colonel, please come here, and I will introduce you: this is General Katukov, commander of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade; It was Major Yevremenko, commander of the 280th anti-tank regiment. Then he turned to Katukov and them, pointed to the colonel and said: "This is the commander of the 1073rd regiment of my division, Colonel Chistyakov." ”

As the three of them saluted and shook hands with each other, I called around the log-made headquarters and found that it was similar to my divisional headquarters, with a large wooden table in the middle of the room with military maps and telephones. On one side of the wall there is a square observation hole, in front of which a periscope is placed. On the other side of the wall, there were transmitters, walkie-talkies, and the like, and since there had been no fighting outside, the soldiers in charge of operating these devices sat quietly.

I walked to the table, looked at the map spread out on it, and still felt that I still couldn't understand it, so I beckoned to the three of them: "Stop chatting, come and study the combat deployment!" ”

When the three of them came to the table, I said to Chistyakov: "Comrade regiment commander, you can first introduce us to the deployment of your regiment."

"Please come with me here," said the colonel, who led us to the observation hole, pointing outside, "the regimental headquarters is located in the forest, two hundred meters to the east, and is the defensive position of a battalion under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Chernyugov. About two kilometers further east, there is a forest, in which are stationed the tank units of the enemy's breakthrough. ”

"How many tanks does the enemy have?" As soon as I heard about the enemy's tanks, the first thing that came to mind was the commander of the anti-tank regiment, Major Yevremenko, who did not know if this was his professional habit.

"I sent someone to reconnoiter last night, probably a tank battalion of the enemy, which, when breaking through our lines, lost several tanks, and now there are seventeen tanks. It was a simple tank unit, not followed by infantry. ”

"Our brigade currently has only 30 tanks, and if we attack from the front, even if we completely annihilate this tank unit of the enemy, our casualties will be very large." Katukov said thoughtfully as he looked outside.

"It's okay to go around behind the enemy and sneak up on them, as the casualties will be smaller." Chistyakov presented his own proposal to the commander of the tank brigade.

"No way!" Katukov immediately rejected his proposal, "We don't know how the enemy is deployed in the forest, not only from what direction it approaches, but also from what direction it can be detected." In that case, a sneak attack becomes a strong attack, and such a battle is not cost-effective. ”

While the two of us were discussing how to attack the German tank units, I used my periscope to observe the situation outside. Russia's forests are not the kind of continuous forests with no edges in sight, with one open space after another dividing the forest into irregular small areas. The forest two kilometers away was no exception, surrounded by bare open fields, and no matter how close you approached in stealth, you would be spotted by those inside. I adjusted my periscope and continued to look at the terrain in other directions, and saw that about 500 meters southeast of our position, there was a forest.

Seeing this, I straightened up and turned around and called Chistyakov: "Comrade Colonel, come and see, is there any unit of our army or the enemy in the forest over there?" ”

Chistyakov looked at it and replied to me: "Comrade division commander, the area of that forest is too small for the troops to deploy, so we did not set up the line there. When the scouts came back from reconnaissance last night, they went to check and there were no enemies there. As he spoke, Katukov and Yevremenko also crowded over and leaned over to the observation hole to see the terrain outside.

When Chistyakov finished speaking, I nodded, returned to the table, turned to them, and said, "Come here, let me tell you how to fight this battle?" ”

I wanted to point out the map, but thinking that I didn't know the map and was afraid of making jokes, I picked up a notebook on the table, tore off a page, and spread it out on the table. I first drew a square on the top and bottom of the paper with a pencil, then a horizontal line on the top of the square below, and finally a circle on the right side of the middle of the paper.

I looked up after the drawing, and saw that the three of them were all looking at me blankly, and they didn't understand what I was drawing on the paper, so I quickly explained to them: "This is the situation map I drew between me and the enemy." Pointing to the square below with a pencil, he said: "This is where our headquarters is located, and this horizontal line represents the line of defense of our army." ……”

"I understand," the high-ranking officer reacted quickly, and as soon as I said a word, Katukov understood: "The square above is the enemy's position, and the circle on the right should refer to the forest you just asked, right?" ”

"Well done!" Seeing that Katukov understood my sketch so quickly, I praised him and continued: "Then I will assign a combat mission." ”

"Comrade division commander, I would like to remind you that our army has limited strength, and if we go on the offensive, we will pay a great price, and when the enemy launches a new offensive, we will not have enough forces to defend." It was Chistyakov who said this, and he was probably afraid that my blind command would cut off the entire army.

"In this battle, the infantry is only responsible for the defense, and it is the tank brigade that is responsible for the attack." Speaking of which, I looked up and asked Katukov: "Comrade General, what kind of tanks do you have, do you have the kind of KV heavy tanks that the enemy's shells can't break?" ”

"Our brigade is equipped with the latest T-34 tanks, not the KV heavy tanks you said."

"Alas, it's a pity, otherwise you can fight the enemy all over the ground to find teeth, I will continue to talk about combat deployment." I pointed to the horizontal line with a pencil and said to Yevremenko: "Comrade Major, you deployed the anti-tank regiment here in the line of defense of our army. Then he moved the tip of the pen to the circle and said to Katukov: "Comrade General, you put twenty-five of these tanks here. Then send the remaining five tanks to advance towards the forest where the enemy is located. ”

"You mean, let these tanks go on a lure mission?" Katukov asked tentatively.

Talking to smart people is easy to do, and I was only halfway through it before he knew my plan. But there were two other people beside me, and I wonder if they understood my intentions, and I had to explain to them: "General Katukov's tanks are advancing towards the enemy's positions, and when the enemy is shelling them, they turn around and run towards our positions, trying to lure the enemy out of the forest." When the enemy's tanks came into range, the anti-tank artillery regiment opened fire. When the enemy was dazed, General Katukov's other tanks burst out of the forest and cut off their retreat. At this time, even if they come to their senses, it will be too late to turn around and escape, and what awaits them will be the fate of the entire army. What do I mean, do you understand? ”

"Totally understood!" The three of them answered me in unison.