"Prokhorov, if I'm not mistaken, the 23rd Regiment of Attack Aircraft was still in Leningrad at the end of last year. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info"

Lin Jun motioned for the lieutenant to take a break, and a staff officer of the 1st Division on the side took an enamel cup at the signal of Gusev, Lin Jun took it and handed it to the pilot, and asked by the way.

"Yes, Marshal. We were transferred to Lithuania from the Leningrad Front only last month and have been supporting the 1st Guards Division in operations. Taking the cup, Prokhorov grimaced, "Marshal, I don't know how to drink." ”

There was a hint of embarrassment on his handsome and resolute face - a small half glass of liquor in his hand! As soon as you smell it, you know it's a great vodka!

All the middle and senior officers on the side laughed, they didn't expect that the young man in front of him was not afraid of death, but he would be afraid of this little glass of spirits!

"Lieutenant, where is your hometown? Don't tell me you're ******. ”

"No, marshal, I'm either ******, or I've never drunk." The lieutenant honestly replied, "My home is in the town of Rozhjestvenskoye, Povolino district, Voronezh. ”

"Put your medal in the wine and drink it in one gulp, and it will be an order!"

In the face of orders and the traditions of the Red Army, Lieutenant Prokhorov chose to obey, as if drinking bitter medicine, and drank a small half glass of liquor at least 60 degrees in one go!

The sound of artillery and gunfire heard in the trenches became less and less, and the Germans had retreated, and Lin Jun motioned for everyone to return to the hidden headquarters.

Sitting on a simple back chair, Lin Jun asked the lieutenant who followed up: "I saw that your skills are very good just now, which school you graduated from, and you are very calm." ”

"Report Marshal, who at the end of last year just graduated from the Barashov Military Aviation Academy (located in the Saratov region of southwestern Russia, on the left bank of the Hopiol River, a tributary of the Don River. In school, I studied fighter piloting, and in middle school, I participated in the aviation club. ”

The lieutenant was a little embarrassed: although the marshal said that he was skilled and brave, he could not say that his plane was shot down.

"Comrade infantry will send you back to the troops." Lin Jun took a notebook from Gusev, swiped a few strokes to write down the words when he was awarded the medal just now, tore it out and handed it to the lieutenant: "Give this to your regiment commander and ask him to give you a replacement certificate." ”

"And, Prokhorov, there is nothing shameful in being beaten down, sum up the lessons. I've also been beaten down, and I've improved myself in failure, learned from experience, and come back to hit the enemy hard! ”

"Yes, Marshal!" The lieutenant saluted Lin Jun again, and then was taken away from the command headquarters.

"Let's go, go to the field hospital." Lin Jun said as he walked, "As soon as the troops are assembled, they will attack." Nikolai Fedorovich, I'll have to watch at your headquarters then. ”

Vatujing smiled: "Marshal, it should be a beautiful battle of annihilation, but it will be very difficult. ”

Comrade General didn't talk much, but Lin Jun understood that this expert in mechanized and tank combined attack already had a bottom in his heart.

、、、、、、

On the night of February 15, Shwinjounis train station.

As the military train slowly drove into the station, the fighters of the 94th Guards Rocket Artillery Regiment saw the railway station, which was located in the southeasternmost part of the Lithuanian front. At the height of the war last year, the Germans failed to occupy the intersection of two important railways and two main highways, but the war still left an indelible scar on the small city!

Even under the control of the lights, the soldiers could still see the mess in their field of vision: more than half of the buildings were in ruins, the masterpieces of German bombers and long-range heavy artillery - even after the German army in the south was driven out of the range of heavy artillery by the 1st Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, this was also the focus of the "vultures"!

Especially in the area around the train station, there is not a single intact building in sight, and all that remains of the buildings destroyed by the bombs is the burned bricks and rubble.

Rail transport supported more than half of the logistics needs of the 1st Division in the "small land" direction, and it was here that the two railways to Latvia and Panevevez met, where the railway workers and the Red Army defended this vital railway line.

As long as the railway is open, and Shven Jonis is still in his hands, troops and supplies from Belarus and Latvia will continue to reach the front line in southeastern Lithuania. For this reason, the railway has been constantly blown up by German bombers for several months, and the locomotives responsible for transportation have to face the threat of German bombers breaking through the air defense every day, but even in such difficult conditions, railway transportation has not been interrupted for a long time!

The bridge was broken and rebuilt, the rails were broken and repaved, and there were still two damaged locomotives in the station's small repair garage being repaired overnight. War is not just a contest between armies, the whole country is running at high speed, and the responsibility of the communication front does not have to be easy at all for the front-line troops - as long as the Red Army fights, logistics and supplies can follow wherever it goes!

The station has been fully prepared for the unloading of the arriving heavy equipment, as soon as the train stops, the steel frame track is erected on the flatbed, and a huge scene of unloading is in full swing.

Tereschenok is now running forward and backward like a captain of a loading and unloading team, there is no way, this is on the front line, and the conditions are not as complete as in a large railway freight station. Usually it takes as little as an hour to uninstall, but now it looks like it takes at least twice as long!

The people in the station dispatch room are even busier, and the small train station will have dozens of military trains arriving in two days, many of which are heavy equipment that takes a lot of time to unload. It is necessary to be able to unload at any time, not to "fight" without making mistakes, and to let the unloaded equipment and troops drive away as quickly as possible, which is like a war without gunpowder.

At midnight, after the rocket artillery regiment unloaded and drove away, a full 20 wagons of ammunition were removed from the station. However, the comrades could only take a nap in the humble rest area by the platform, and three more military trains with heavy equipment would arrive before dawn until noon tomorrow.

At 6 a.m., in the pre-dawn darkness, a heavy train with two locomotives slowly pulled into the station in the spewing of black smoke and steam - the first column of the 1536th regiment of heavy self-propelled artillery arrived.

The railway workers could see the huge tracked tractors on the flatbed train at the front, and the experienced railway workers recognized at a glance that they were the famous "Voroshilov Warriors". The tractor seems to have made the "self-propelled" of the 1536 regiment a bit unworthy of its name - it was not only equipped with three battalions of new self-propelled 122-mm and 152-mm howitzers, but also one battalion of towed heavy guns: B-15 heavy howitzers weighing more than 15 tons!

Major Terentiev, the commander of the 1536th regiment, who was in the command car, learned half an hour ago that the train did not need to be disconnected from the special surface unloading platform, because there was also a working 35-ton large crane at the station, which could lift the equipment directly from the parallel platform. (To be continued.) )