With the war imminent, there was no point in sending negotiators to the Germans, but would make the nervous commanders and fighters relax, so Rokossovsky replied very dryly: "No, Comrade Chief of Staff, we have already conducted two negotiations to persuade the Germans to surrender, both of which ended in failure, and even if we send negotiators to the Germans again, we will get the same answer." ”

After listening to Rokossovsky's answer, Malinin said with some embarrassment: "Comrade commander, since the base camp personally inquired about this matter, if we want to refuse, it may not be good?" ”

Malinin's words reminded Rokossovsky, although he knew in his heart that even if he tried again, he would definitely not succeed, but in order to save face on the side of the base camp, he decided to adopt a compromise method: "Chief of staff, in this way, install loudspeakers on positions relatively close to the German troops, broadcast to the enemy the conditions of our army's avatars day and night, and at the same time send the air force to the sky over the encirclement to drop leaflets calling on the German officers and men to stop resisting." If the top echelons of the German army refuse to surrender, then we will shift the goal of persuasion to the officers and soldiers at the grassroots level, as long as they realize that resistance is meaningless and can lay down their arms and surrender to our army, we will be considered to have achieved our goal. ”

Rokossovsky's order has already been conveyed. In response to the large-scale persuasion of the Soviet army to surrender, the German army immediately took corresponding measures. They bombarded Soviet positions with loudspeakers with long-range artillery fire, and used anti-aircraft guns against Soviet planes that dropped leaflets over them.

Early the next morning, Rokossovsky, Voronov, Kazakov and others came to the headquarters of the 65th Army, because Batov's troops would be the main force of today's offensive, and they came here to be the first to know the progress of the troops.

Rokossovsky asked Chief of Staff Glebov and learned that Batov was staying at an observation post just three hundred meters from the forward position. As soon as he waited for the other party to finish speaking, he immediately ordered: "Comrade Chief of Staff, find two soldiers who are familiar with the road and take us to the observation post." ”

Although Batov had already received the news that Rokossovsky was coming, he was still surprised when he saw the people who walked in, because in addition to Rokossovsky and the commander of the artillery of the Front, Kazakov, there was also the commander-in-chief of the artillery of the Soviet army, Colonel-General Voronov.

After saluting Rokossovsky, Batov asked in a low voice: "Comrade commander, how did General Voronov come to us?" ”

"The general wanted to see the effect of the shelling up close." After briefly explaining why, Rokossovsky asked: "Are the troops ready?" ”

"Yes, Comrade Commander." In an affirmative tone, Batov said: "The troops have entered the starting position and are waiting for the signal for the start of the offensive." ”

Rokossovsky raised his hand and looked at his watch, and saw that the hour hand on it had already pointed to seven o'clock, so he turned to Voronov and said: "Our air force has set off and is about to bomb the German positions." ”

Voronov came to the lookout and raised his binoculars to look into the distance. At this moment, the sky was just dawning, and the surroundings were quiet, and there was no movement to be heard. Since Voronov did not know that the infantry offensive would officially begin at nine o'clock, he would have thought that there was not a single person on the position.

The people standing in the observation post were silent, and everyone waited quietly for the attack to begin. At this moment, a bright fire could be seen in the depth of the German defenses in the distance, and a faint rumbling sound could be heard. Rokossovsky let out a sigh of relief and said: "This is Golovanov's long-range aviation, bombing enemy airfields and major targets; And Rudenko's aviation will soon bomb the German artillery positions. In order to quickly deal with the enemy besieged in the Stalingrad area, the base camp prepared three air groups for us so that we could gain air supremacy in this area. ”

The bomber formations of Rudenko's Air Group Army, which, as soon as they reached the skies above the German defensive positions, came under heavy anti-aircraft fire from the ground. However, due to the limited ammunition of the German army, the anti-aircraft artillery fire intercepted by the air was not very violent.

The bomber formations of the two air groups dropped tons of bombs on the German positions, enveloping the pre-reconnoitred targets in a sea of fire. As the ground anti-aircraft guns were eliminated one by one, the Soviet bombers became like fish in water, and in addition to continuing to bomb the set targets, as long as they found an active target on the ground, the dive bombers would dive down, drop bombs and strafe until the target was eliminated.

Although the bombing went smoothly, Rokossovsky's heart did not feel steady, he always felt that the German army was hiding its strength, waiting for a more suitable fighter to give his attacking troops a thunderous blow.

At 8:05, Kazakov gave a simultaneous order by telephone to all artillery units of the Front to open fire on the enemy's defensive positions. At the sound of an order, the artillery, mortars and Guards rocket artillery, which had long been ready, opened fire, and the flames of the explosion and the rising smoke soon enveloped the enemy's position.

After the artillery preparation lasted 55 minutes, extended firing began. A barrage of red flares immediately rose in the air, which was the signal for the start of the offensive. The tanks, hidden behind the positions, quickly crossed the trenches and rushed towards the German positions in the distance, amid a roar. Infantry fighters also climbed out of the trenches and charged behind the tank units.

Rokossovsky saw that the infantry who were charging behind the tanks were all infantry on foot, so he asked Batov with displeasure: "General Batov, didn't I ask you to equip the attacking troops with automatic sleds?" Why don't you carry out my orders? ”

Batov, who was rebuked by Rokossovsky, said with some grievances: "Comrade commander, I have already handed over all the automatic sleds to the assault units of the 233rd Infantry Division, and their assault route is the longest. And the sections you see are only a few hundred meters away from the German army, and only a kilometer or two away, so there is no need to use automatic sleds. ”

Rokossovsky found that he had mistakenly blamed Batov, but in front of many commanders, he did not seem to apologize, so he could only raise his binoculars and continue to observe the troops that were attacking the Germans.

The attacking troops were still more than 200 meters away from the German positions, and machine guns and mortars in the trenches opened fire, and the Germans tried to separate the Soviet infantry and tanks with dense firepower. Their tactics worked well, not the mortar shells that exploded in the middle of the queue and the frantic strafing of machine guns, forcing the infantry following the tank to lie down on the spot and return fire with craters and other obstacles.

The lone Soviet tanks were attacked by anti-tank artillery fire and anti-tank men, and one after another the tanks were destroyed in front of the German positions and stopped burning in the open ground.

Seeing this, Rokossovsky couldn't help but be furious, and hurriedly ordered Batov: "Batov, order your army group to open fire, destroy the German anti-tank artillery fire with firepower, and cover our troops to continue to charge forward." ”

As soon as he finished speaking, a strange sound was heard, and then a shell landed next to the observation post and exploded. The huge shock wave shook the snow on the roof and fell through the cracks in the logs, turning everyone in the command post into "white".

"What's going on?" Rokossovsky slapped the snow falling on his body with his hand, and asked dissatisfiedly: "Why did the enemy shoot at us?" ”

As soon as he finished speaking, there was another screech of shells piercing the air, followed by two more shells that landed next to the observation post and exploded. The gas lamp hanging on the wall was shaken to the ground and shattered, and the observation post was plunged into darkness.

"Not good, Comrade Commander, we were discovered by the artillery spotters of the Germans." In the dark, with his own feelings, Batov grabbed Rokossovsky, who was standing in front of him, and while dragging him outside, he said anxiously: "Hurry up and transfer, otherwise there will be danger." ”

A group of people emerged from the observation post, bent down and ran down the traffic trench towards the back. He didn't go far before a series of explosions came from behind. "Lie down!" I don't know who shouted loudly, and then these commanders who were running wildly in the traffic trench all lay on the ground.

After the violent rumbling was over, Rokossovsky got up from the ground, shook off the hot dirt on his body, sat up straight and turned his head to look in the direction of the observation post, only to see that the observation post, which had just left the short time ago, had been hit by German artillery fire and was burning fiercely.

Rokossovsky looked left and right, and saw that the commanders lying on the ground were sitting up one after another, slapping the snow and dirt that had fallen on them, so he raised his voice and asked loudly: "Are you all right?" ”

"It's fine!" "We're fine!" The surrounding commanders replied in a rambling manner.

Rokossovsky beckoned to Bartov, who was crouching not far away, and motioned for him to come in front of him. As soon as Batov bent over and squatted down in front of him, he immediately asked: "Batov, is there any place nearby that can be used as an observation post?" ”

Batov raised his hand and pointed to the west and said: "Comrade commander, walk about a kilometer west along this communication trench, there is also an observation post where we can continue to observe the fighting at the front. ”

Hearing that there were still spare observation posts, Rokossovsky hurriedly ordered Batov: "Take us there immediately." ”

Just as everyone stood up and ran forward along the trench, they suddenly heard the sound of bullets whizzing overhead, and they had to crouch down again. Rokossovsky turned at Batov and asked: "Batov, what's going on?" Why would someone shoot at us? ”

Batov glanced at one of the staff officers next to him and motioned for him to see what was going on. The staff officer nodded, stood up quickly on his stomach against the wall of the trench, and after a few glances outside, he squatted down again, turned his head and reported to Bartov: "Comrade commander, in the direction of six o'clock, there is a point of German machine-gun fire, which may be a small German unit that has infiltrated our army's defense zone. ”

"Immediately bring in a guard platoon." Batov instructed the staff officer: "You personally lead the team to take out this German machine-gun fire point." The staff officer replied loudly, bent over and quickly ran in the other direction.

After the staff officer left, Batov asked Rokossovsky for instructions: "Comrade commander, shall we still go to the alternate observation post?" ”

Rokossovsky turned his head and saw Voronov and Kazakov squatting not far away, and couldn't help but hesitate. If it's your own, you're not afraid of going to a dangerous place, after all, you have the aura of the protagonist, and you're not so easy to be killed by bullets or shells. But if you bring Voronov, the representative of the base camp, the situation will be different, if he has three strengths and two weaknesses, it will be difficult to explain in front of Stalin.

Just when Rokossovsky was hesitating, Voronov bent over and ran over and anxiously asked: "Comrade Rokossovsky, why don't we immediately go to the observation post, what are we still doing here?" ”

"That's right, Comrade Voronov." Rokossovsky cautiously said: "The Germans are strafing us with machine guns, and although the bullets cannot reach the trenches, we cannot risk it, in case we are hit by stray bullets during the operation, it will be troublesome." Let's just do this, Batov sent people to transfer troops, and when this firing point of the German army is eliminated, we will go to the observation post, do you see? ”

"No, that's too long." Unexpectedly, Voronov rejected Rokossovsky's proposal in one bite, and said resolutely: "As long as we are careful when acting, German bullets will not be able to hit us." Let's go now. ”

Seeing that Voronov was not afraid of danger, Rokossovsky naturally did not say anything more, so he decisively ordered: "Everyone bend down and follow me!" With that, he bent down and took the lead and ran in the direction of the observation post.

The German machine gunners, when they found a group of Soviet commanders running wildly in a communication trench a few dozen meters away, fired wildly in that direction, trying to kill one or two of them with a dense barrage of bullets. The bullets fired from the machine gun, although they smashed the dirt on the edge of the trench like a boiling pot, did not cause any harm to the people who were bending and running in the trench.

As Rokossovsky ran, he couldn't help but regret a little in his heart, knowing that the Germans had small troops nearby, he should have asked Bartov to leave a few automatic sleds, so that the troops on guard duty could quickly attack and quickly destroy these enemies who entered the defense zone to harass them.

A few minutes later, the group successfully rushed into the alternate observation post. After Batov waited for Rokossovsky and them to enter the observation post, he called an officer on duty nearby and ordered: "Comrade Captain, strengthen the vigilance in the vicinity, and the small German troops must not touch it!" ”