At the moment when Lin Jun was reading the battle report, on the outskirts of Bzezerkovy, nearly 90 kilometers away from his wheelchair, in the headquarters of the 1st Czechoslovak Brigade, Ludvik Svoboda was having a headache from the latest battle situation!

It's not that the attack didn't go well, half of the city had already been taken, but the remnants of the German army on the southeast side of the city suddenly abandoned their positions, leaving only some of the wounded who couldn't walk, and most of the personnel broke through in the direction of Tashiha in the southwest of the city desperately!

The breakout is quite good, to put it bluntly, it is a girl who escapes, faster than a rabbit!

And in the northwest of the city, every house captured costs death! Troop casualties are growing!

The 1st Czechoslovak Brigade commanded by Svoboda was reorganized only a few months ago, and although it could not be said that it was treated as a "post-mother" in terms of equipment, it was really not as good as the mechanization level of those old Red Army units in the current organization of the 40th Army. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

The speed of the marching assault could not be increased, and it was used by the army group as the main infantry force on the right flank to attack the city of Bezelkovy, and the main force of the mechanized troops of the group army had already protruded dozens of kilometers on the left flank of the 1st brigade.

And on the right flank of Svoboda, the pace of advance of the 5th Army of the tanks, which was sorted, could not keep up with the Czechoslovak troops!

Since it would be delayed, the command of the army group made arrangements for the Czechoslovakians as the main force in the street fighting of the city when preparing for the campaign.

The officers below were still complaining yesterday, treating them as security forces -- this battle was a standard large-depth assault and encirclement attack, and the German troops in the city of Bezelkovy had only two choices, either to hold on and wait for reinforcements, or to break through at the first opportunity.

And from the previous situation, it is expected that the German army is more likely to break through!

Therefore, the Czechoslovakians were not cannon fodder, and the army group command took good care of them: as soon as the battle began, the artillery group of the army group bombarded the German perimeter of the city defense, and then the Czechoslovak soldiers liberated the city after sporadic engagement.

At that time, it will be necessary to send part of the forces and throw off the long legs to pursue the retreating German army for dozens of kilometers!

At first, many people thought so, but this time the fight went wrong!

The Germans put up stubborn resistance on the front, and two infantry battalions of the Separate Brigade simply bypassed the vast countryside from the flanks and assaulted laterally!

But after fighting for most of the day, the Germans suddenly broke through from the southeast side of the city like crazy.

That part of the city, including its suburbs, had previously been under German control. When the Czechoslovak commanders at all levels who reacted gave the order to pursue, huge explosions continued to erupt inside the city!

"What the hell is going on?!"

Ludwijk Svoboda was furious, rushed out of his headquarters, and saw one huge bombing point after another in the city, "What kind of explosions are the Germans doing?!" ”

There were no planes in the air, and there was no sound of super-heavy shells whistling by the trains, which could only be done by the Germans in the city.

After 10 minutes, Svoboda finally figured out the situation: the main forces of the German right flank ran and left all the mechanized vehicles behind!

This is the Great Plain of Ukraine, where 8 roads intersect in the city of Bsetselkovy: where are the Germans fleeing without vehicles?

On two legs?

However, Svoboda knew that the Germans had no nerves, and in the case that the two flanks had been broken through by the Red Army's mechanized heavy forces, it was estimated that several roads to the southeast had been cut off by the Red Army, and the German vehicles wanted to pass, which was almost equivalent to suicide!

The military map spread out, the situation on it was very clear, and he said to his chief of staff, Yarosh: "Our most troublesome situation has happened before!" ”

"Chase?"

"There were not many people, so three battalions were sent to pursue them by car along the road leading to Tashiha."

As he spoke, he pointed to a position, "Just enter the forest from here, hoping to block some of the fleeing German troops." The 4th Battalion entered the southeast woods on the outskirts of the city and set up a cordon to prevent the remaining German troops from harassing them, and the rest of the troops accelerated the clearing of the remaining enemies in the city! ”

The brigade commander did not think that there was a need for a full-scale pursuit: it would be dark in two hours, and the point was to clear the city of the remaining enemies!

Why not pursue it in full force?

Because that's hide and seek!

It is true that this is a plain, but outside the city of Bsetselkovy, along the banks of the Rossi River, there are large gentle hills that are only a few meters or ten meters higher than the plain.

And along this so-called "highland", there are large areas of dense woods.

As long as they crossed the Rossi River from the south of the city, the Germans could avoid the mechanized units of the Red Army, enter the forest and add a compass, even if there were only a few people, they could run more than ten kilometers in two hours!

The woods here are not alpine forests, the woods are very flat, and it is difficult to run wildly, but there is no problem with a fast march.

The Rossi River on the south side of the city is not wide, and several bridges on the river have been repaired by the Germans, although the Soviet Air Force bombed them in the early stage, they did not completely destroy them, and it was not a problem for the German infantry to cross the river.

But here comes the trouble, the trucks of the 1st Czechoslovak Brigade could not pass: the Germans blew up all three bridges that could cross vehicles!

However, there was a small pontoon bridge that could only be destroyed by personnel, and the first battalion had to pursue it on foot.

After nightfall, a communications officer of the 3rd Battalion approached the brigade commander and reported that the 1st Battalion had pursued nearly 10 kilometers and engaged in only one skirmish, killing more than a dozen broken German soldiers.

Because of nightfall, the 1st Battalion retreated to the flank of the 4th Battalion and established a cordon.

And in these few hours, the clean-up work in the city was basically over: the German troops who remained in the southeast side of the city were basically wounded who could not retreat on foot!

Leave the wounded behind, which is very rare in the German army!

Moreover, the Germans also prepared a large number of explosives that could not be taken away, and when the Czechoslovak troops attacked, those German wounded who were left behind took the initiative to detonate tons of shells and explosives!

It was not easy to catch a few wounded Germans who were not so heroic, and I understood why the Germans did this: most of the German troops in the city were originally occupation troops in the area here, and they had almost killed all the Soviets in the city before!

There was a rumor within the German army: once captured, he would definitely be shot by the Soviets.

Outside the city and on the north side of the city were originally deployed German field troops, so the battle was extremely fierce! However, there are basically third- and fourth-rate troops in the urban area, which are okay to deal with the common people and guerrillas, but they cannot be relied on in a tough battle.

The small number of German troops in front of them who were cut and surrounded could not retreat, and they stumbled to the end, so that the 1st Czechoslovak Brigade also suffered great losses!

But the security forces of Bzeelkovy ran away like this!

There was a lot of ammunition left, and for fear of being captured and suffering reprisals from the Soviets, even many wounded who knew that they could not survive committed suicide with explosives!

……

The next morning, a second battle report arrived in Lin Jun's hands, which included a relatively detailed report on the battle of Bzeirkovy.

This is what Lin Jun asked his confidential secretary to make a special request to the front command yesterday, because he wants to consider the development of the offensive in the Ukrainian direction in the foreseeable second half of the year after the end of this campaign.

Unless there are particularly major surprises, the Red Army will advance near the original border with Czechoslovakia by this time next year at the latest.

Not just operations, but also politics: that is the Transcarpathian Ukrainian problem.

At a previous meeting of the Supreme Soviet, the question of Transcarpathian Ukraine was discussed.

Stalin's attitude was very clear that it would be Soviet territory: for historical reasons, the inhabitants of it were inclined towards the Soviet Union, not towards Czechoslovakia.

And the commander of the 1st Czechoslovak Brigade, Ludvik Svoboda, although he is not in a high position at present, will still be able to play a great role in this issue in the future.

Ludvik Svoboda, Lin Jun knew this person in high school, because he was the president of the Czechoslovak Republic!

Born in 1895 in Hroznatin in the Terzebic district of Czechoslovakia, he served in the Czechoslovak Regiment in Russia during the First World War.

He returned to Czechoslovakia in 1920, rose to the rank of officer the following year, and from 1931 became company commander and battalion commander.

After the Czech Republic was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1939. He ran to Krakow, Poland to organize the heart of the Czech army. And led the army to the Soviet Union.

After the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War in 1941, the 1st Independent Battalion and the 1st Independent Brigade of Czechoslovakia were formed. In the future, he also served as the commander of the First Army Corps, which would attack Czechoslovakia together with the Red Army. By 1945, he would be the Minister of Defense of Czechoslovakia.

In 1968, he was elected president and supreme commander of the armed forces of Czechoslovakia after "negotiations under the bayonet".

The negotiations under the bayonet, of course, were in 1968, when Dubcek, the first secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, initiated the reform of the political system known as the "Prague Spring". As a result, in the eyes of the Soviet Union, this move had a tendency to break away from Soviet control.

In order to implement a unified "Soviet system", the Soviet Union decided to carry out armed intervention against the Czech Republic.

Dubcek stepped down and Ludvik Svoboda came to power.

And at the moment on the front lines of the Great Patriotic War, there is a very interesting scene: Czechoslovak troops from both sides participated.

Of course, the number of the Czechoslovak army on the German side is no longer "Czechoslovakia".

It was also a sad thing, for the Czechoslovakians.

Why is this happening?

In March 1939, 17 German divisions invaded Czechoslovakia and declared the Czech Republic a "Bohemia-Moravian Protectorate", while Slovakia declared independence on the 14th.

In September 1938, the Czechoslovak army, which still had 38 divisions, had only 16 divisions left, and there was no resistance to the German invasion, and there was little strength to resist.

However, many Czechoslovak soldiers did not want to be slaves and fled to Poland, or to France via Yugoslavia or Lebanon.

In July 1939, the fugitives formed a Czechoslovak regiment of more than 3,000 men in Krakow, Poland, under the command of Ludvik Svoboda.

When the Germans invaded Poland in 1939, more than 1,000 officers and men of the regiment (2,000 of whom had already been transferred to France) were intercepted by the Red Army and went to the Soviet Union as a whole, where they were designated as the "Eastern Cluster of the Czechoslovak Army".

And what about the 2,000 people who went to France?

In May 39, the French government approved the enlistment of Czechoslovak soldiers into the French Foreign Legion, and in October approved President Edward Benes to form a "new army of Czechoslovakia in France" based on exiles, Foreign Legion officers and soldiers and expatriates in France.

By June '40, the Czechoslovakians had also taken part in the defense of Paris, but were soon routed by the 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions of the German 16th Panzer Corps in mid-June.

The Czech army withdrew to the Mediterranean ports, but in the end only 2,600 men were able to set foot in England in Liverpool in time for British ships.

Later, many Czechoslovak troops arrived in Britain and North Africa, and some of them also participated in the North African war against Germany and Italy.

And in the Soviet Union, in 41, that President Benes sent an emissary to Moscow, demanding that the Czechoslovak troops on Soviet territory be brought back.

After two and a half years of life in the Soviet Union and the transfer of most of the personnel to North Africa, there are still about 100 people left in the troops commanded by Svoboda!

Rest assured, the Soviets did not treat them as they did Polish diehards, but allowed officers and soldiers who had somewhere to go to leave voluntarily.

To put it bluntly, it doesn't matter if this unit disappears, but it cannot be formed into a system for the West.

The people haven't left yet, the Great Patriotic War has broken out!

After the outbreak of the war, many former Czechoslovak soldiers in the Soviet Union reunited, and last year this small unit was organized into the "1st Czechoslovak Independent Field Battalion" in Buzuluk, Ural Mountains, and the battalion commander was Colonel Svoboda.

The battalion has a total of 974 personnel under the jurisdiction of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd infantry companies, machine gun companies, anti-tank companies, mortar companies and support units. Not long after, a "Czechoslovak Reserve Regiment" was formed.

This year, the battalion was merged with the reserve regiment to form the 1st Czechoslovak Separate Brigade (under the jurisdiction of the 1st and 2nd infantry battalions, the 1st and 2nd artillery battalions, tank battalions, anti-aircraft battalions, etc.), which participated in part of the fighting in southern Ukraine.

Four years ago, more than 2,000 soldiers from the former Slovak 1st Infantry Division, which had been dispersed, joined the brigade, and the infantry alone expanded to four battalions.

And in the German camp opposite, there will be more Czechoslovakians in this way!

Needless to say, the Germans in the Sudetenland were most of the Slovak soldiers of Germanic origin except for the Sudetenland, and most of them later joined the German Waffen-SS.

Today, on the Soviet-German front, there is a Slovak mechanized infantry division, which was established in August 1941 after upgrading the equipment of a mechanized infantry brigade composed mostly of Slovaks in the original Czechoslovakia, which is fighting side by side with the German army in the Ukrainian direction.

There was also the Slovak 2nd Infantry Division, which was a security division whose main task was to maintain and guard the areas occupied by the Slovak army.

In the last year, it has been deployed near the Soviet-Polish border, mainly for security purposes.

There's also a Slovak 2nd Infantry/Technician Division, which will be handed over to Italy, and it's on vacation in Italy!

Mussolini's distrust of this force was like a holiday - the Italians had the right hunch this time: historically, when the Allies attacked Italy, the troops, led by their commanders, went straight to the American army.

Finally, there is a Slovak 1st Infantry Division in the country, but this will have already been infiltrated by the Czech Communist Party, and it will also be the fate of an uprising in the future. (To be continued.) )