Although General Govorinenko's troops were only half an hour ahead of the original time, it was this half an hour that made us pay a lot of extra sacrifices. According to the confessions of the German officers who were captured later, they had received orders to move, and when they were preparing to leave, they received reports from scouts outside Chuhuev that the main forces of our army were advancing southward, quickly rushing towards Izyum. Under these circumstances, the German commander immediately made a decision, canceled the order to move the troops in the north of the city, and mobilized the troops in the south of the city to fill the breakthrough opened by Chuikov.

The next thing got worse and worse. First of all, the vanguard of the 89th Guards Division, while still on the march, was defeated by the German armored units rushing from the flank, and if it had not been for the timely arrival of Seryugin with two other regiments to repel the Germans, perhaps this vanguard regiment would have been canceled.

Then we received a telegram from the reconnaissance team. They reported that the Germans, not knowing whether to prevent the 375th Division, which had suffered a thwart attack, from retreating into the forest, or fearing that we would send our troops back to their rear through the forest, opened the sluice gates over the river and flooded most of the forest west of the city.

Seeing the bad news coming one after another, and General Kirazze, who came to the forward command tower in person, ****** no information came for a long time, I couldn't help but feel anxious. After walking back and forth in the headquarters a few times with my hands behind my back, I suddenly saw Chistyakov, who was leaning over to look at the map, and I suddenly had an idea.

I walked up behind Chistyakov and called him in a low voice. When he turned around, I said tentatively: "Comrade Deputy Commander, the situation ahead is very complicated, and I am not very relieved, and I want you to take command." I don't know what you think? ”

Chistyakov pondered for a moment about this proposal of mine, then nodded decisively and said decisively: "Well, Comrade Commander, since you have entrusted me with this task, I will definitely complete it successfully." ”

The reason why I have been stealing the limelight from these deputies for so long is that if I don't put them in charge of a few more important battles, then over time, the commanders of friendly forces will think that my deputies are a bunch of incompetent people. And every time I'm on the front line, it's time for a different person. At this moment, seeing that Chistyakov very readily agreed to go to the front to command the troops, my heart suddenly became much more steady.

However, before leaving, Chistyakov said with some unease: "Comrade commander, as soon as we leave here, there will only be one guard company left in the city." They keep you safe, right? ”

"Don't worry, Comrade Deputy Commander." I thought that I would not be so unlucky, and that I had been plotted by a few stragglers hiding in the city, so I said with a big grin: "With Major Basmanov here, a few Germans will not be any threat." ”

Seeing that I had such confidence, Chistyakov explained a few more words to me and hurried away.

When the command became empty, Akhromeyev came up to me and asked curiously: "Comrade commander, why did the Germans flood the forest?" Do they really think that we will send troops, through the forest, and make a detour back to their rear? ”

Akhromeyev is a subordinate I trust, so I don't hide it from him either: "Yes, Comrade Major. If it weren't for the scout's report that the soil in the forest was soft, I might have sent a tank force through the forest and back behind the enemy's back. ”

After listening to this, he sighed and said regretfully: "Now that the Germans have flooded the forest, not to mention the tank troops, it is difficult for even the infantry to pass through the forest." ”

"Yes," the German army's use of water instead of soldiers, this trick was indeed very unexpected to me, I did not expect that the method I thought of when I was in Stalingrad was actually used by the German army first. I said to Akhromeyev with some helplessness: "Judging by the current situation, we can only carry out a frontal assault and tear a gap from the front of the enemy's defense. ”

Akhromeyev stared at the map for a long time before he said leisurely: "Comrade commander, if there is no artillery cooperation, we will pay a huge price only by relying on tank units to guide the infantry charge." The defensive strength of the Germans was far beyond our imagination, otherwise we would not have delayed for so long the tactics of attacking the outlying positions west of Kharkov with multiple sorties and breakthroughs at multiple points. ”

After listening to him, I was just about to speak, when I suddenly remembered that Vatutin had promised me that there would be an air force to help in the war. But the battle lasted for half a day, and I did not see a single plane of our army dispatched, on the contrary, I saw from the telegram sent by Chuikov that the German air force was dispatched to bomb the Eighth Guards Army. Hurriedly said to him: "Major, you call the chief of staff and ask him to ask the front command when it will be able to provide us with the necessary air support." (To be continued.) )