Koval walked briskly across the wooden bridge to the east bank. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

The most important thing after avoiding the river in the battle of crossing the river was to consolidate the landing field.

As soon as he stepped on the east bank, Koval immediately ordered: "A company of the 2nd Battalion is responsible for continuing to build pontoon bridges, and the rest of the troops will immediately use the fortifications left by the enemy to transform them into beachheads for our army." The 3rd Battalion continued to the south-east, placing our position all the way to the edge of the woods. Pay attention to enemy counterattacks and shelling. ”

The units immediately went to carry out their tasks.

Inside the city of Daugavpils.

"An artillery regiment in the city has been transferred to the north of the city, and most of our troops have retreated, please instruct." An officer asked.

"Cover two rounds of shooting, and then shoot accurately."

"Yes, sir."

Soviet shells fell near the landing site, killing some careless Polish soldiers in the first round.

"Spread out, spread out! Walk along the trenches! Officers at all levels immediately shouted.

The excited soldiers immediately hid in the trenches.

Koval stood on the façade of a trench, holding a telescope and observing the movements of the Soviet troops.

Some of the surrounding Polish soldiers removed sandbags from the northwestern side of the trench and repiled them on the side facing Daugavpils, while others took shovels and dug fortifications on the spot.

Locke bent down and ran briskly along the trench, and said with a guilty face, "Sir, I didn't complete your task this time. ”

He kept his head down and waited for Koval to dispose of him.

Koval gave him a cold look and reprimanded, "You did really badly before. It's still a big war, I'm giving you a chance, you took a battalion to drill into the woods for a few days, and now continue to drill into the forest, detour behind the enemy's back to harass them. ”

"Yes, sir." Locke saluted and left.

The Polish army stepped on the wooden bridge and stepped on the east bank of the Gava River, one regiment, two regiments, and crossed the river.

The suspense in Koval's heart was finally put down, and now even if the Soviet army attacked with all its might, it would not be possible to drive himself down the river.

Not long after the artillery fire of the Soviet troops rang out, it became sparse, and only a few shells were fired after ten minutes.

On the morning of the 17th, several commanders of the 1st Infantry Division of Koval and the River Crossing gathered.

"Lieutenant Colonel Koval! Hello! A short-haired officer walked up to him and stretched out his hand, his dark brown eyes very deep and dazzling.

"Lieutenant Colonel Tadeusz, hello!" Koval immediately shook his hand.

Although Koval was half a head taller than him, he couldn't suppress the momentum of Ling Ran on his body.

After shaking hands with the other regiment commanders, Tadeush stood in front of the command table and solemnly announced: "General Shimigwe has ordered me to temporarily command the 1st Infantry Division to attack Daugavpils, and I hope that all my comrades-in-arms can support it." ”

"Yes, sir." Koval immediately saluted.

Several other lieutenant colonels also saluted.

Among the Polish army, Koval discovered a very peculiar phenomenon. Because there were only a few brigades of troops before, the rank of Polish officers was generally not high. After the independence of Poland, the size of the army suddenly expanded, and there was a shortage of officers. The army has been established for a short time, and most of the officers have no qualifications and no military achievements, so their ranks are relatively low.

Moreover, Poland did not make up for it by indiscriminate ranks, so much so that now the supreme commander of the Polish army, Pilsudski, is only a general, and other subordinates who followed him in the early days only have the ranks of major general and brigadier general. And because of the limited number of senior commanders who could be trusted, the role of Polish officers in the army became more prominent, and sometimes they would gather together to command a battle under the leadership of one of them.

Later, the Polish junta became Pilsudski and his colonels.

"Our next plan is to continue to expand our positions, and then transport the 1st Light Artillery Regiment on the other side of the river to the east bank of the Gava, so that our firepower will be sufficient. The pontoon bridge also needed to be further strengthened so that the 1st Tank Regiment of our army would be able to cross the river. Tadeusz explained: "Lieutenant Colonel Koval, your unit has done a great job in the previous battles, and it has been very hard. Now you can rest and recuperate, and the task of continuing to strengthen the wooden bridge will be left to you. ”

As expected, Koval said secretly in his heart.

He smiled and said, "Yes, I resolutely obey the order." ”

I took the great achievement of crossing the river, and if I continue to rush ahead. The rest of the friendly forces will definitely complain, and they can't take all the credit for themselves. This kind of grudge between the various units is accumulating day by day, and it is not known at any time that it will flare up. Maybe one day, when you need to rescue, friendly troops are slowly walking to your aid. Maybe it's when you're retreating, and your flanks are exposed by an early retreat of friendly forces.

In short, if an ordinary officer offends too many colleagues, it is very easy to be betrayed by his teammates.

"Lieutenant Colonel Kari, each of you is in charge of a position, and here ・・・・・・," Lieutenant Colonel Tadeush ordered, pointing to the map.

"Yes, sir."

When Koval returned from the front command, he immediately gathered his troops and handed over the positions.

"Sir, it's clear that we were the first to cross the Gava River, but we didn't have anything to do with the siege!" Parker complained a little depressedly: "It was us who built the bridge, and now we still build the bridge, and we are all about to become engineers!" ”

"Aren't the engineers bad?" Koval smiled lightly: "Don't look down on the engineers, without the engineers, who will open the road in the mountains and fill the bridge in the water?" This time to cross the river, I remember the first merit of your second battalion. ”

"Really?" Parker exclaimed in surprise.

"If you don't want it, I'll give Ivanovsky's artillery battery." Koval said casually.

"Yes! Want! Want! Parker hurriedly agreed.

"Okay, you go down and command the troops to strengthen the wooden bridge, and the artillery and tanks of the large army will cross the river from it. This is very important, and there must be no forks! Koval admonished.

"Okay, I'll go and see for myself." Parker replied immediately.

Koval led his troops back into the dense forest to the north, watching them lie on the ground one by one and rest casually.

Koval immediately summoned the officers and said, "After a night of fighting, everyone is very tired, and I understand it very well. But getting together and resting like this is not an option. It's okay during the day, but isn't it going to be bitten to death by mosquitoes at night? If the enemy sees the position of our troops, a volley, we will have no place to hide here, I don't know how many people will die in vain! ”

"That's what the chief said."

"Immediately disperse your troops in the woods and arrange them. Then take turns digging trenches, at least so that you can run in to avoid the shelling. Koval commanded.

"Yes, sir." The crowd replied.