Red Moscow - #2399 - Chapter 2398:

Zaharov stared at Lyudnikov for a long time and said slowly: “General Lyudnikov, what you said is right, and what you said is wrong.”

Perhaps because everyone seemed particularly confused after listening to his two sentences, Zakharov continued: “On the surface, most of the Kwantung Army laid down their weapons and surrendered to us, but there are still some areas that have slipped through the net. Zhiyu, continue to oppose our army. If we take it lightly, we will easily suffer big losses.”

“General Zakharov,” Lyudnikov said unconvincingly: “At least in the area we control, no Kwantung Army will be our enemy anymore.”

“I have just said that on the surface there are no enemies who are against us for the time being, but secretly there are still many enemies who have slipped through the net and are resisting.” Zaharov finally turned to the topic: “We are summoned today. The meeting here is, first, to summarize the performance of our front troops in this battle, and second, to inform everyone of the problems encountered by the First Far East Front.”

As soon as Zakharov mentioned the First Far Eastern Front, Sokov guessed what he was about to say, and couldn’t help but interjected: “Comrade Chief of Staff of the Front, do you want to say the First Far Eastern Front?” Is it about attacking Dongning Fortress?”

“Yes, what I want to talk about next is the Dongning Fortress.” After Zaharov said this, he asked strangely: “Misha, how did you know that I would mention the Dongning Fortress?”

“The reason is very simple.” Seeing everyone casting curious glances at him, Sokov took the initiative to say in order to dispel their doubts: “There are many comrades from the International Brigade in my army, and several of them The commander was recently sent here, and I once heard one of the commanders mention Dongning Fortress. So when I heard the Chief of Staff of the Front Army talking about the First Far East Front Army, I immediately connected the two.”

“Yes, Misha’s guess is not wrong.” Zakharov spoke in time to support Sokov’s statement: “When the First Far East Front Army attacked Dongning Fortress, they thought that the defenders would comply with their Tianhuang edict. He put down his weapons and came out to surrender to our army, so he relaxed his vigilance and made the mistake of underestimating the enemy. As a result, he suffered a big loss in the subsequent battle.”

“General Zakharov,” Kravchenko, commander of the 6th Guards Tank Army, who was sitting opposite Sokov, interrupted when Zakharov’s words came to an end: “Can you tell us what the truth is? What’s going on?”

“Dongning Fortress is located in Dongning Town,” Zakharov began to introduce the fortress to the commanders present, which the Kwantung Army spent a lot of manpower and material resources to build: “It starts from the Palace of Hell in Suiyang Town in the north and ends at Ganhe River in the south. With a frontal width of more than 110 kilometers and a depth of more than 50 kilometers, it is the ‘Oriental Maginot Line of Defense’ in the minds of the islanders.”

When Zakharov said this, one of the commanders sneered and said disdainfully: “Not to mention the Maginot Line of Defense in the East, even the authentic Maginot Line of Defense was not able to be deployed after the war broke out. Use, so much manpower and material resources were wasted.”

Zakharov glanced at the commander, and did not blame the other person for interrupting his story, but continued: “After the Kwantung Army occupied the Northeast, in order to prevent our country’s attack, and use this place as a place to invade our country Not only did the largest military fortress in Asia be built here, but also three divisions of the Kwantung Army, an independent brigade, and a border garrison were stationed here, with a total strength of 130,000, and a There are 10 airports, more than 400 permanent fortifications, and 45 field artillery positions…”

Zaharov came to the wall, pointed to the map above and continued to explain to everyone: “In everyone’s understanding, the highest officer of the fortress garrison is only a major general, but here, there are only three lieutenant generals and a major general. Eleven people. Moreover, the Kwantung Army stationed here is not only large in number, but also has a complete range of arms, including infantry, cavalry, tank troops, armored troops, communications troops, aviation troops, artillery troops, engineering troops, pontoon troops, automobile troops, health troops, etc. They The troops are mainly distributed in Sanchakou and Dongning.

 Sanchakou is close to the border of my country and is an important location of Dongning Fortress. Here are stationed the First Border Guard Corps and six combat units responsible for offensive missions…

Stationed in Dongning is the 3rd Division of the Kwantung Army, and the frontline defense headquarters is located at Majia Camp…

 Datuchuan is an important transportation route to Jilin and a strategic military location of the Kwantung Army. There are a large number of arms warehouses, gasoline warehouses, clothing factories, arsenals, automobile and tank repair shops, grain depots, etc. built here. Stationed here is the 12th Division of the Kwantung Army, with its headquarters located in Xinchengzigou…”

While General Zakharov was telling the story, Sokov vaguely heard someone muttering behind him: “The war is over, why are you introducing these to us? Even if the war is still going on, this Dongning Fortress belongs to the first front in the Far East. What does the military’s combat area have to do with us?”

Marshal Malinovsky, who was sitting at the other end of the long conference table, apparently saw these whispering commanders and tapped his fingers on the table twice: “Comrade commanders, please stay quiet and listen to us. The chief of staff continued.”

Since it was Marshal Malinovsky who spoke in person, the commander sitting below who was muttering in a low voice quickly closed his mouth and sat there obediently listening to Zaharov’s introduction to the situation.

“After the Kwantung Army occupied Northeast China, they did not satisfy their aggressive ambitions. In particular, there were many young officers who hoped to make contributions through war. This bottom-up fanaticism made the island country’s war machine run wildly. They formulated They came up with an ambitious invasion plan: march north to attack the Soviet Union; go south and attack the Southeast Asian countries; and there was an even bolder idea, which was to march north and south at the same time, and finally fight the United States.

In order to prepare for the war against my country in the north, the Kwantung Army established four combat areas on the border of my country. In three phases from 1934 to 1945, it established a strategic border area of ​​about 4,800 kilometers from Hunchun, Jilin in the south, to Hailar, Inner Mongolia in the north. In important areas, facing the direction of our country, 17 large-scale military fortress groups were secretly built according to the mountain situation, namely: Hunchun Fortress, Dongning Fortress, Lumingtai Fortress, Suifenhe Fortress, Guanyuetai Fortress, Banjiehe Fortress, Temple Ling Fortress, Hutou Fortress, Fujin Fortress, Fengxiang Fortress, Hormojin Fortress, Aihun Fortress, Heihe Fortress, Fabiela Fortress, Hailar Fortress, Unuoer Fortress, and Aershan Fortress. “

Hearing this, there was discussion again below: “Oh my god, so many fortresses have been built. If Tianhuang of the island country hadn’t issued an edict to surrender, wouldn’t it have taken several years if we had fought one by one?”

“Yes, the battles for fortresses are the most brutal. Some fortresses can be taken down in ten days and a half, while some fortresses may not be taken down even if it takes three months or even half a year.”

However, the discussion this time was very short, and Marshal Malinovsky might stop it again, and calm would return to the conference room. “The total length of these fortress groups is about more than a thousand kilometers, and there are more than 80,000 permanent fortifications, which are divided into five types: ‘Special’, ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, and ‘D’. Special-level fortifications It is required that the thickness of the roof and the thickness of the main wall in front should exceed three meters and be able to withstand a 300 mm caliber, 1 ton bomb with direct red alert. Among them, Dongning, Hutou, Hailar, Aihun and other positions are all ‘special’ types Position. General Luchinsky!”

 Hearing Zakharov call his name, Luchinsky, the commander of the 36th Group Army sitting on Sokov’s side, stood up, straightened his body and replied loudly: “Here!”

“In this Far East campaign, your army’s attack area is Hylar Fortress. Can you tell us how you feel?”

Luchinsky nodded and began to describe his troops’ experience in attacking the Hailar Fortress area: “The combat area of ​​our group army is divided into three areas. On the right wing are the 293rd and 298th Infantry units commanded by Lieutenant General Fominco, deputy commander of the group army. The division and two machine gun brigades, as well as the mortar regiment, howitzer regiment, engineering regiment, independent tank battalion, etc., are the auxiliary assault direction of the group army’s offensive operations and are responsible for the assault in the direction of Manzhouli.

The main assault direction of the group army is in the middle, that is, from the five ferries on the upper reaches of the Ergun River to the Hailar Fortress. The 94th and 94th Infantry Corps commanded by Major General Leonkov, commander of the 86th Infantry Corps. The 210th Division, as well as the 205th Independent Tank Brigade and other units were responsible for the main attack, and were scheduled to annihilate the fortress defenders and liberate Hylar within ten days.

The left wing of the group army is also the auxiliary assault direction. Lieutenant General Lopatin, commander of the 2nd Infantry Corps, commands the 103rd and 292nd Infantry Divisions and other attached units. After crossing the river from the Old Rude Haitu, it goes east via Sanhe, Nagybula Launch an assault on the Yakeshi, Fenduhe and Daxinganling defense lines.

In order to flank our army’s attack on Hailar, the front army headquarters also transferred the 221st and 358th Infantry Divisions from General Lyudnikov’s 39th Group Army to advance towards Hailar from the Nomenkan and Jiangjunmiao area…”

“Ivan,” Sokov heard this, tilted his head towards Lyudnikov’s position, and said in a voice that only two people could hear: “I really didn’t expect that your troops also participated in the attack on Hylar Fortress. .”

Hearing Sokov’s question, Lyudnikov nodded slightly, with a proud expression on his face, seeming to tell Sokov that his troops played a vital role in the battle to conquer Hylar Fortress. role.

“The first to invade Hailar was the advance team commanded by Major General Burmasov, deputy commander of the 86th Infantry Corps. This force consisted of the 205th Tank Brigade, the 152nd Infantry Regiment, the 491st Self-Propelled Artillery Brigade, and the 158th Independent Artillery Battalion] The 97th Artillery Regiment…”

Sokov couldn’t help but be secretly surprised when he heard half of it. He felt that Luchinsky’s tactics were really good. As the vanguard of the attack on the fortress, except for a small number of infantry, they are almost all artillery and tank troops. It is obvious that the purpose of this deployment of troops is to quickly break through the enemy’s defense line and prevent the enemy from organizing effective resistance. As for the task of occupying the position, it is left to the follow-up troops who follow up.

While listening to Luchinsky’s story, Sokov recalled the various mistakes he had made in combat command over the past few years and how to remedy them.

Unknowingly, Luchinsky’s story came to an end: “…in this battle for the fortress, both the enemy and us fought tenaciously. Although the Kwantung Army is a permanent fortification relying on solid fortifications, our army is still in the process of losing its strength. , possessing an overwhelming advantage in terms of weapons and equipment. Although nothing unexpected happened during the attack on Hylar Fortress, the battle was still quite difficult. From the firefight at night on August 9th to August 17th It lasted seven days and eight nights until the Kwantung Army hung up the white flag and surrendered.

In order to achieve the final victory, we paid a large number of casualties. Among them, more than 1,100 commanders and combatants died, including 145 officers, including 1 colonel, 1 major, 12 captains, 25 captains, 43 lieutenants, 35 second lieutenants and 28 warrant officers…”

Although Luczynski did not say the number of injured, Sokov calculated based on a casualty ratio of one to four that the number of wounded commanders and combatants should be about 4,500. In other words, in order to capture the Hailar Fortress, the 36th Group Army suffered nearly 6,000 casualties, which shows how tragic the war was. He secretly calculated in his mind, if the troops attacking Hailar Fortress were not the 36th Army, but his 53rd Army, how many casualties would there be?

After Luchinsky finished speaking, Zaharov continued: “Comrade commanders, you have just listened to General Luchinsky describe the process of their conquest of Hylar Fortress. You may think that this battle was very difficult. , but compared with the battle to conquer Dongning Fortress, it can only be regarded as trivial.

With the cover of aircraft, artillery and tanks, the friendly forces who attacked Dongning Fortress took seven days to seize the surface position of Dongning Fortress and defeat most of the defenders. However, seeing that the situation was not good, some of the defenders hid inside the fortress and continued to fight with our army relying on the solid fortifications.

After the island country Tianhuang issued a surrender edict, the communication facilities of the fortress defenders were completely destroyed, making it impossible for them to receive news of the surrender. In order to urge the enemies in the fortress to surrender, the friendly forces specially sent a surrendered Japanese staff officer into the fortress and handed the Tianhuang Edict and our army’s surrender letter to the commander of the garrison. After some twists and turns, nearly a thousand officers and soldiers of the Kwantung Army walked out of the fortress under white flags on the 28th.

But just when the friendly forces thought that the Kwantung Army had surrendered, they received reports from local villagers that many Kwantung Army troops were found in the nearby Xunshan Fortress. After confirming the news, the friendly commander immediately ordered the troops that had left to return and resume the attack on the fortress. The defenders in the fortress were still resisting in the face of friendly aircraft bombings and artillery bombardments. It took the friendly forces two full days to completely eliminate all enemies in this fortress. “

After introducing the situation of the friendly forces, Zaharov returned to the table, put the explanation stick in his hand on the table, and held the edge of the table with both hands. He said to the commanders present: “We must learn from the friendly forces’ lessons. Don’t think that superficial If the enemies are eliminated by us, we can sit back and relax and ignore the hidden enemies. Therefore, the next task of each army group is to conduct a large-scale manhunt in their respective areas to see if there are still Kwantung officers and soldiers who have slipped through the net. Get up and prevent them from suddenly launching an unexpected sneak attack when our army is unprepared, thereby causing huge losses to our army.”

 (End of this chapter)