I understood Kirillov's concerns, that if he withdrew with me to the other side of the river, it would have a negative impact on the commanders and fighters who had placed deep trust in us, and seriously affect the morale of the defenders in the city.

For this reason, I did not persuade Kirillov again, but sighed, stretched out my hand to him, and said reluctantly: "Comrade commissar, I will first go to the other side of the river to establish a new command and wait for you and the chief of staff to pass." You two must take care of your own safety, and as soon as our defensive positions on the west bank are secured, you will withdraw your troops across the river as soon as possible. ”

Kirillov listened to me, nodded his head again and again, and said to me with concern: "Comrade Oshanina, the situation on the other side of the river is not much better than ours here, and you should pay more attention to your safety." ”

When Vitkov shook hands with me and said goodbye, he had only a simple sentence: "Comrade commander, please take care!" ”

When I heard him say this, my nose was sour, and in order to prevent myself from crying in public, I didn't dare to speak, but just pursed my lips and nodded. After letting go of Vitkov's hands, I waved my head at Major Pugachev, who was standing next to me, and motioned for him to come with me.

Since the fighting on the West Bank had not yet completely ended when the members of our Provisional Command crossed the Dnieper, I ordered the Provisional Command to be located on the island of Hortica in the middle of the Dnieper. This island was originally a place for German troops, and most of the officers and soldiers who crossed the river to fight were once stationed here.

From the war report from the Bandereev newspaper, I learned that two German companies were stationed here, but during the shelling of the city of Hama. The 2nd Regiment, which had quietly crossed the Dnieper, delivered a thunderous blow to the Germans, knocking the Germans who were still asleep into a daze. With the exception of dozens of soldiers who escaped in rags, the rest were either killed or captured by our troops.

The room where our headquarters was located, presumably formerly the battalion command post of the German army. Due to the haste in which the enemy fled, he did not even have time to take the map on the wall. While Pugachev was leading the command to set up the headquarters, I stood alone in front of the map and learned about the distribution of the enemy's forces according to the standard red and blue arrows on the map.

But when I came to the conclusion that the Germans did not have many troops in the West Bank. Command is in place. Pugachev reported to me: "Comrade Army Commander, here we have captured some documents of the German army, the contents of which are there. It seems to involve intelligence on the enemy's troop movements and deployments. ”

I took the document from his hand, looked through it casually, and found that it was written in German, which I didn't understand, so I handed it back to him. And commanded: "Comrade Major." Please give these documents to Ensign Grettka, and let him translate them for us, what is it like to see the deployment of enemy forces in the vicinity? ”

After Pugachev left with the papers, I continued to stare at the map on the wall. Although we captured the German battalion command post and captured their operational maps and some documents, I did not expect to learn much useful information from them, because the rank of the battalion officers was too low. The superiors only need them to execute their own forces, how the next battle will be carried out. They have no way of knowing.

I went up to the operator and told him: "Comrade operator, contact Major Akhromeyev for me, and I will ask him how the situation is there." ”

The telegraph operator was skillful, and it only took a minute to contact Akhromeyev. When I heard the major's voice coming out of the headphones, I didn't talk too much nonsense, but asked bluntly, "Major, how are you doing there?" ”

"Report to Comrade Commander." Akhromeyev's voice emotionally reported: "Thanks to the timely arrival of Major Perstian's tank battalion, we have seized the initiative on the battlefield. The enemy's resistance ceases as soon as our tanks fire at the windows where tongues of fire are still being spewed into the buildings that would otherwise be difficult to conquer. ”

"When the tanks were attacking the city, did you send troops to follow up in time?" I was afraid that he would stay in the fortifications and watch the tanks rush into the city, and I warned him that "tanks without infantry cover will become targets for German anti-tank fighters on the streets of the city." ”

"Please rest assured, Comrade Commander, that the tank battalion was divided into three small detachments to assault the city, and I sent a company of infantry behind each detachment to follow them. In addition, more than 20 armored vehicles of the tank battalion also followed closely behind the tanks and advanced towards the city. At present, our troops have occupied three-quarters of the city of Hama, and we are sure that the rest will be resolved within twenty minutes. ”

"How is the battalion of Captain Dubrovsky?" When I heard that the city of Hama was about to be occupied by us, I suddenly thought of the battalion that had just been divided by the Germans, so I asked: "Have you sent someone to contact them?" ”

"I've been in touch for a long time, Comrade Commander." Akhromeyev respectfully reported to me: "The Germans launched five charges into the area entrenched by the 1st Battalion, and even rushed into the 2nd Company Sector on one occasion, and the company commander, Captain Rosenberg, personally led a platoon of commanders and fighters in a counterattack, and even engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. ”

"White-knuckle combat?!" To be honest, this is the last word I like to hear in defensive warfare, because it means that both we and the enemy will pay a terrible price in battle. "What about the casualties of the second company, and how many commanders and fighters are left to continue fighting?"

"In the white-knuckle battle, the second company suffered far fewer casualties than the enemy because almost all the commanders and fighters used shovels." Akhromeyev carefully reported to me: "However, due to the heavy casualties of the second company in the early battle, so far there are less than 50 people left in the original company of more than 200 people. ”

"I see." I heard that there were still nearly 50 people left in the company, and I felt much more at ease, but fortunately, the 22nd Guards Division had a large number of troops, and if it were replaced by the 171st or 308th Division, many battalions would not necessarily have 200 troops. "Please tell Captain Rosenberg not to worry about the casualties of the troops, and to be able to get those positions as soon as possible is victory. As for the soldiers lost in battle, I will find a way to replenish them. ”

Just finished a call with Akhromeyev. Pugachev walked in from the outside with Ensign Gretka. The two came to a halt in front of me, and Pugachev raised his hand and saluted and reported to me: "Comrade commander, I take into account the fact that there are too many documents. It would have been a long time since Comrade Gretka had finished translating and then forwarding it to you, so I called him over and asked him to translate for you on the spot. ”

"You are very thoughtful, Major Pugachev." I smiled with satisfaction at Pugachev's pretentiousness. He praised him from the bottom of his heart: "In this way, our work efficiency has been greatly improved." ”

With that, I turned my gaze to Gretka, who was standing next to me. He pulled down the hand that held him to his forehead, shook it tightly and shook it a few times, and said in a friendly voice: "Comrade Ensign, please help me translate these documents that have just been seized." Start with the most important documents. ”

Gretka agreed. He took the document from Pugachev's hand and began to look through it. He flipped through quickly, probably trying to find important documents in the middle as quickly as possible. I'm thinking about whether I should find something else to do first so that I don't have to wait as stupidly as I am now. At that moment, Gretka suddenly stopped, pulled out a document and examined it carefully.

Seeing the way his brows were furrowed, I knew in my heart that what he had found must be an important document, and hurriedly asked, "Comrade Second Lieutenant." What did you find? Is it an important document? ”

Hearing my questioning, Gretka read the contents of the document at a glance. Only then did he raise his head and report to me: "Comrade commander, this is an important document issued by the German command. ”

"Important documents?" Hearing him say this, it immediately aroused the interest of Pugachev, who was standing next to him, and he asked curiously: "Comrade Ensign, tell me, what is written on the document?" ”

Greteka didn't answer right away, but turned his inquiring gaze to me. Seeing that I nodded his head for approval, he coughed, held up the document with his right hand, and said unhurriedly: "The German command orders the commander of this battalion to continue to launch a feint attack on Zaporosh in the coming days, making a posture that the main German army is still on the west bank of the river, so that our army does not dare to cross the Dnieper River rashly." ”

"Since the enemy wants this battalion to pass off as the main force, then their main force is definitely not here." I vaguely heard from this document Manstein's hidden conspiracy, and in order to find out what was going on, I deliberately asked: "So where did the main forces of the German army go?" ”

Gretka came to the map with the document, pointed to the German place names on it, and continued to report to me: "Comrade commander, the main forces of the enemy have turned north, trying to cross the Dnieper from Dnepropetrovsk to attack the troops of our Voronezh Front. ”

After listening to Gretka's words, I just let out a soft oh, not taking it to heart in the slightest. What I am thinking about is that if Manstein really crosses the river north with the main German force to attack General Golikov's Voronezh Front, we will be in front of us with an extremely empty rear of the German army, and we can turn it upside down. From the day I disobeyed Kharidonov's military order, I silently told myself in my heart: no matter what others think, I must do things according to my own ideas, and as a person who does not exist in history, I don't care what history will become in the future.

Thinking of this, I asked Grettka again: "Comrade Second Lieutenant, does this document say how many troops the Germans left in the West Bank?" ”

After glancing at it, Gretka quickly replied: "According to the contents of the document, before leaving, Manstein left a battalion of troops in the city of Hama in addition to leaving two companies on this island. Most of the rest of the smaller towns have cell phones, but the number of people is usually only about a row. ”

"What a cunning Manstein." After listening to Gretka's later words, after scolding Manstein, I had to praise him for the cleverness of this "empty city plan". The tank assault he used yesterday almost disrupted our deployment in the city, and if the commander of the Soviet army had changed, he would have tried to strengthen the fortifications by all means to resist the German attack from all sides. Unexpectedly, he met a person like me who did not play cards according to common sense, not only did he not want to fight a war of attrition in Zaporosh and his elite troops, but he also unexpectedly crossed the Dnieper River and fought a counterattack by the Germans.

After I figured out Manstein's intentions, I had new ideas for the next military deployment. I walked quickly to the walkie-talkie and instructed the operator with headphones: "Pick up General Gurdiev immediately, I want to talk to him." ”

After contacting Gurdiev, I had just "fed" the microphone when I heard the excited voice of the other party: "Comrade commander, I have good news for you, the vanguard of our division has successfully captured the town of Krylova, and is currently clearing the town of remnants of the enemy. The Germans on the west bank of the river were so vulnerable that we broke through the German defensive positions with only one company-sized charge......"

"Comrade General," I didn't wait for him to finish his blindly optimistic tone, and then directly interrupted him, and said euphemistically: "I don't know whether the German army's combat effectiveness is vulnerable. But what I want to tell you is something else. Perhaps the main German forces had withdrawn from the vicinity before we smuggled out last night, leaving only a small number of remaining troops to pin down our troops along the river. ”

"What, the main forces of the German army were transferred?" When Gurdiev heard the news, he was also taken aback, and he asked in surprise: "So where is the main force of the German army now?" ”

"According to the intelligence we have captured, the enemy intends to cross the Dnieper from the Dnepropetrovsk region to attack the Voronezh Front of General Golikov." At such a time, I no longer care whether my plain phone calls will be eavesdropped by the German army, and I only hope that my commanders can understand the movements of the German army in the shortest possible time, so that they can adjust their deployment according to the changes in the battlefield in the next battle.

"I see, Comrade Commander." Immediately after listening to what I had to say, Gurtiev said to me: "After clearing the remnants of the German army in the town of Krilova, I will send my troops to continue the advance to the north and build fortifications in suitable areas to prevent the sudden southward movement of the German army and the attack on our army." ”

"Very well, General Gurdiev, you have thought it through, just do what you think." (To be continued......)