"Comrade Sokov, you are very thoughtful." After listening to Sokov's report, Konev praised: "You are good at choosing the direction of detour. If you detour from the enemy's left wing, you will definitely achieve good results."
"Comrade Commander of the Front Army," Sokov felt that he wanted to carry out such a big operation in the Shumakovo area, and it was obviously not possible without the support of the Air Force, so he asked Konev tentatively: "When we are doing tactical detours, I wonder if you can send the Air Force to cooperate with our operations?"
"What, do you need the cooperation of the Air Force?" Sokov's proposal made Konev feel embarrassed because he had just received an order from the Supreme Command recently, asking him to immediately transfer the 5th Guards Army and the 5th Guards Tank Army to Prokorovka to assist the 6th Guards Army there in defense. The recent mission of the 5th Air Force Army to which the Front Army is to compete for air supremacy with the Luftwaffe: "According to the order of the superior, the 5th Air Force Army's mission is to compete with the enemy for air supremacy in Prokorovka, and I'm afraid that the strength will not be drawn out to provide you with air cover."
Konev's words made Sokov's heart sank. What a joke? The large corps combat, without tanks and lack of cannons, was enough to make him feel a headache. Now he doesn't even have air support! If he fought during the day, his troops would have the upper hand, but if the enemy dispatched the air force and bombarded him, the attack he launched might be disintegrated.
Thinking of this, he said cautiously: "Comrade Commander of the Front Army, if there is no air support, I am worried that we will become very passive in the next battle."
"Comrade Sokov, you make sense. If the army-scale attack is not supported by air, it will definitely suffer huge losses." Konev was unwilling to suffer unnecessary losses from Sokov's troops. After some consideration, he said to him: "During this period, the two marshals Zhukov and Vasilevsky, as representatives of the base camp, have been staying in the Central Front and the Voronezh Front. If you can personally make your own request to them, I want to obtain air support, and there is still a certain chance."
Hearing Konev say this, Sokov began to think in his mind: he has achieved great results on the battlefield in the past two years, and his father and Zhukov are old comrades-in-arms, so he can get a lot of resources. For example, the new rockets, rocket launchers and assault rifles that are equipped with troops are now given priority in supplying his own troops. In addition, when he served as the commander of the Sixth Army, he even assigned himself two aviation divisions.
If he really made any request to Zhukov, as long as it was not too much, Zhukov would definitely agree. Thinking of this, he nodded and continued, "I understand, I will find a way to contact Marshal Zhukov."
After Sokov put down the phone, he began to consider how to contact Zhukov. Although Zhukov was following the radio operator and communication staff when he was traveling, it was impossible to contact him through telegram. In order to ensure Zhukov's personal safety and ensure that his whereabouts were not leaked, other departments were unable to contact his radio station except for a few designated departments.
Since Zhukov could not contact him, Sokov had also considered Vasilevsky. After all, as the representative of the base camp, he had been in charge of the Voronezh Front headquarters. But he quickly gave up this tempting idea. What Vasilevsky considered the most at the moment was how to ensure the security of the Voronezh Front's defense zone and ask him to order the air force to dispatch to support friendly forces. The possibility of his agreement was not very high.
After a circle, the problem returned to the starting point. It seems that only when contacting Zhukov, his troops will have the opportunity to obtain air support provided by the Air Force when attacking.
Seeing that Sokov had finished calling, he looked helpless, Lunev asked curiously: "Comrade Commander, what troublesome things make you so distressed?"
"Comrade Military Commissioner," Sokov said with a sad face: "Just when I was talking to the Front Commander, he told me that the air force directly under the Front will focus on the Prokorovka area and compete with the enemy for air supremacy in the following days. That is to say, the battle we have carried out in the near future will not receive any support from the Air Force."
After hearing Sokov said this, Lunev finally understood what was going on. He asked quickly: "What are you going to do?"
"The commander of the front army said that I cannot violate the orders of my superiors. If I want to obtain air support in the battle, I can only contact Marshal Zhukov." Sokov was worried that Lunev was not sure of Zhukov's current identity, and specifically added: "As the representative of the base camp, Marshal Zhukov was responsible for the liaison between the Central Front and the Voronezh Front."
"Then you can contact him," Lunev said. "Will this solve the problem of air support?"
"Comrade Military Commissioner, the problem is not that simple." Sokov said with a bitter face: "I don't know where Marshal Zhukov is now and how to contact him?"
"You can contact him through the radio..." As soon as Lunev was halfway through his words, he immediately realized that where a person of Zhukov could go, it was absolutely confidential. Sokov couldn't figure out his whereabouts and could not contact his radio station. It was normal for him to turn his eyes twice and he immediately came up with a good solution: "Comrade Commander, why not send a telegram to Comrade Beria and ask him to notify Marshal Zhukov, and say that you have something important to find him."
Sokov could not contact Zhukov directly, but as Beria, he should be qualified to contact Zhukov at any time. If he was asked to make a connection from it, he would probably be able to contact Zhukov soon. However, he pretended to hesitate for a long time before asking Lunev: "Is this appropriate?"
Lunev was indeed confused by Sokov's illusion, and he replied without hesitation: "There is nothing wrong, Comrade Commander, leave this matter to me."
Lunev moved as soon as he spoke, and immediately asked the communications soldiers to connect himself to the Kremlin, and then found Belia through the switchboard. When Lunev made his request, Belia asked hesitantly: "Is there anything important about you looking for Zhukov?"
"Comrade Belia," Lunev knew that if he had not made the matter clear, he might not have agreed to help, so he briefly introduced the whole story to him and finally said: "Whether you can contact Marshal Zhukov is related to the achievements our troops can achieve in the next battle. Please be sure to help us."
Beria hesitated for a long time about Lunev's request, and finally nodded and said, "Okay, I will contact Marshal Zhukov as soon as possible. You guys are waiting for my good news."
After Lunev received Belia's promise, he immediately smiled happily. As soon as he put down the phone, he said to Sokov: "Comrade Commander, have you heard it? Comrade Belia is willing to contact Marshal Zhukov for us. I don't think we will receive a call or telegram from him in the future."
"I hope so." Although Lunev said this, Sokov still had no idea. After all, Zhukov's whereabouts were not determined at this time, and it is still unknown whether he could receive Beria's telegram in time. But facing such enthusiastic Lunev, he still tried hard to squeeze out a smile on his face: "As long as Marshal Zhukov is willing to help, then our next battle will be much easier."
"Comrade Commander," Lunev felt that before the air force on the side gained air supremacy, the troops that detoured to the German left wing should still adopt a hidden march to avoid being initiated by German reconnaissance aircraft. First, the whereabouts were exposed and the enemy was prepared in advance; second, the troops would be subjected to air strikes from the German army, causing huge losses to the troops.
"Yes, General Gricenko's troops should choose night operations when conducting detours. Even if they have to march during the day, they should choose forest areas so that they will not be discovered by enemy reconnaissance planes." Sokov said: "I will call General Gricenko later to explain this."
While lunch was having lunch, Lunev received a call from Belia: "Comrade Lunev, I have sent your request to Marshal Zhukov by telegram. I believe he will contact you soon."
"That's great." Seeing that Belia really contacted Zhukov for help, Lunev hurriedly expressed his gratitude to him: "Thank you, thank you so much. On behalf of all the commanders and fighters of the 27th Army, I would like to express my sincere thanks to you."
According to Sokov's idea, since Beria had sent a telegram to Zhukov, it would not take long to think that Zhukov would send a telegram or call himself, and he would report his request to him in detail.
But Sokov soon found out that he was wrong. Until the evening, he did not receive a telegram from Zhukov, let alone a call. Although Sokov was very disappointed, he tried to pretend to be nothing, called Gritzenko, and told him some precautions: "...Because the enemy's air force controls the air supremacy in this area, in order to prevent your division from being seriously injured and killed by German air strikes during the detour, you should choose to march at night. Even if you have to march during the day, you should try to march in the forest area to avoid the enemy's reconnaissance planes..."
Before Sokov finished speaking, he saw Samoilov breaking in from outside and said excitedly: "Comrade Commander, report your good news. Zhukov, Marshal Zhukov has come to our command center."
"What, is Marshal Zhukov coming?" Samoilov's news shocked Sokov. He thought Zhukov was at Rokosovsky's headquarters or on his way back to Moscow, but he did not expect that the other party would appear directly here. "Where is it?"
"It's walking towards us." Samoilov said unhurriedly: "At least in a few minutes, we will enter our command center."
When Sokov learned that Zhukov was coming, he could not sit still. He quickly called Lunev, who was sitting next to him: "Comrade Military Commissioner, come out with me to welcome Marshal Zhukov."
Sokov took Lunev and several staff members from the command center and walked out of the command center. As soon as he went out, he saw two armored vehicles and several jeeps parked on the roadside not far from the command center. Zhukov was talking to a group of commanders and fighters standing next to the car with his hands on his back.
Sokov trotted to Zhukov, raised his hand to salute, and reported excitedly: "Comrade Soviet Marshal, Major General Sokov, commander of the 27th Army, will report to you. On behalf of all the commanders and soldiers, I welcome your arrival!"
Zhukov shook hands with Sokov and said, "Misha, I heard you are in some trouble here, so I came here to see if there is anything that can help you."
Sokov wanted to report the detailed combat plan to Zhukov, and said politely: "Comrade Marshal, this is not a place to talk, so let's go in and talk."
Back at the command center, Sokov moved the map on the table to Zhukov, explained his combat plan in detail to him, and finally said: "Comrade Marshal, if we are lucky, we can wipe out the Imperial Division again, so that the enemy will tremble when they hear our number."
Zhukov waited for Sokov to finish speaking, and then said, "As far as I know, many Germans will tremble when they hear your name. If they wipe out the Imperial Master again, the enemy may know where you are and they must be prepared to retreat in advance."
Seeing Zhukov praise him so much, although Sokov tried his best to control his emotions, the corners of his mouth still turned up unconsciously.
Just as Sokov was a little proud, he heard Zhukov's tone become stern: "Last time you wiped out the Imperial Division in the battle and captured Major General Val alive in the command of the division. But why didn't you seize the flag of the division? You must know that once the flag of the Imperial Division is seized by you, it will be the true destruction of the entire army. Even if the Germans want to reorganize, they will have to give up this idea because the flag of the division was captured by our army."
Zhukov's criticism made Sokov realize his negligence. In the battle to encircle and annihilate the Imperial Division, he only ordered the troops to destroy as many enemies as possible, but forgot to organize people to seize the enemy's military flag. As a result, he spent a lot of effort and thought that the Imperial Division could be removed from the German army's establishment, but because the military flag was not captured, the Germans could use the wounded people in the rear to reorganize the troops in a short time.
"Comrade Marshal, don't worry." Sokov assured Zhukov: "We will definitely find ways to seize their military flags when we fight with the Imperial Army again."
"I hope so." After saying this, Zhukov continued to ask: "I want to ask, how large amount of air support do you need to attack the German army?"
"At least one aviation division is needed." Sokov replied confidently: "Only an air force of this size can control the air supremacy on the battlefield."
"Is an aviation division enough?" Just when Sokov thought Zhukov would think he asked too much, he unexpectedly heard the other party say, "Can you gain air supremacy on the battlefield in this way?"
Chapter completed!