After learning that the troops of krivoschein had established a foothold in the north of the city, I hurried back to the headquarters of the 8th group of guards in trakov. Because in my memory, after Hitler's suicide, Hans Klebs, the chief of general staff of the German army, went to the garrison of trakov to negotiate surrender. At the beginning, the senior commander who received the negotiators with trakov was sokolovsky, the deputy commander of the front army. Now history has shifted here. That is to say, the person who received klebsieu will become trakov and me.

But before I left, I asked Zhukov for instructions: "marshal, I have something to ask for your instructions."

Zhukov was looking at the map. When he heard what I said, he said without raising his head: "Rita, if you have something, just say it. You are also the deputy commander of the front army. Don't be so restrained."

"Marshal, if, I mean if," although I know that as soon as Hitler died, klebsieu, as the representative of the German side, went to the defense area of trakov to negotiate, the attack on Berlin is two months earlier than in history. I don't know whether Hitler will stay in Berlin as in history and finally choose to commit suicide, So we can only ask in a hypothetical tone: "the German army sent representatives to negotiate with us. How will we deal with it?"

Zhukov probably never dreamed that I would ask him this question. He looked up at me for a long time, then turned to look at jieliejin standing next to him, and then said with a smile: "Comrade military commissar, you see, as soon as our troops arrived in Berlin, Rita had thought about how to surrender."

"You are too impatient, Rita." Jerekin also said with a smile: "Berlin is a very large city, let alone our army has not besieged it all. Even if it is besieged, it will not take ten days and a half months to capture the city. Now it is too early to talk about accepting the surrender of the German army."

I can't tell them that we can take the city in ten days at most. While I was thinking about how to reply to them, malining came to Zhukov in a hurry with a telegram and said, "marshal, I have just received a report from the base camp that the British and American air forces will carry out a large-scale bombing of Berlin at eight o'clock tomorrow morning, and then do a good job in identifying the enemy and ourselves, so as to avoid the situation of accidental bombing."

Zhukov took the telegram, looked at it, and then told marinin: "chief of staff, you go to inform the troops that have entered Berlin. Tomorrow morning, the air force of the British and American allied forces will bomb the city. Before the end of the air raid, no troops are allowed to enter the city, so as not to cause unnecessary injuries."

On hearing Zhukov's order, kazakov, the artillery commander sitting in a corner, stood up and asked, "marshal, will our planned shelling continue?"

"Of course," Zhukov said, nodding his head, "the British and American air force bombed them, we bombed ours, and they did not interfere. Comrade kazakov, remember that when shelling, let the artillery fight as accurately as possible, and never hit the buildings where the civilians live. "

I don't think much of Zhukov's statement, because we can't know exactly which buildings are German defense positions and which are civilian buildings. If bombing and shelling are combined, many civilians will be injured. The best way for them is to escape from the city or take refuge in the subway, so as to ensure their personal safety.

I took advantage of kazakov's turn to make a phone call and said to Zhukov, "marshal, if there is nothing more, please allow me to return to the 8th group army of the guards."

"Wait a minute, Rita." After Zhukov stopped me, he came out from behind his desk. "If there is a representative of the German army who asks you to surrender, you should report to me immediately, and I'll tell you what to do."

"Yes I agreed. As soon as I wanted to leave, Zhukov said, "also, according to the latest information we got, konev's two tank groups were blocked by swamps, rivers, dense minefields and German defensive positions on their way north. They may not be able to reach the southern suburbs of Berlin tomorrow, so general katukov's first group of guard tanks, You'd better stay and fight with trekov's troops. "

When I heard that katukov's troops could be left behind, I felt a lot more at ease. Although the role of tanks and self-propelled guns in urban street fighting can not be compared with that in field fighting, they are better than nothing.

After returning to the headquarters of trakov, I first told him that katukov's troops would stay and fight with us. Then I asked about the situation in the southern suburbs of the city: "general trakov, I remember that our convoy advancing South encountered a large number of refugees on the road. How did you deal with them?"

"What else? I've had people set up checkpoints on the roads to prevent any refugees from entering Berlin and send them to the nearby small cities. " Trikov looked at me and explained to me: "to let them into the city at this time is to let them die in vain. We Soviet soldiers didn't come to Berlin for destruction and massacre. We have gone through a difficult road to liberate the land of our motherland and the people of our brother countries from the hands of the Communist aggressors. We have come to Berlin now in order to free the German people from the dark rule, to wipe out the Communist system in Germany and forever to wipe out the most dangerous source of aggression. "

I heard that trakov had arranged to escort the refugees to a nearby small city, and the stone hanging in my heart fell to the ground. If thousands of refugees are allowed to enter the city, they will definitely be the victims of our army's attack on Berlin. They will either be killed by shells or bombs, or by stray bullets from which side. It's a good thing that trakov has sent them to the nearby city.

Early the next morning, dense British and American bombers appeared over the city, dropping countless bombs on the city. The artillery commander of the group army, pozharski, also asked trikov, "Comrade commander, since the Allied planes are bombing the city, will our scheduled artillery preparation continue?"

"Comrade artillery commander," I answered ahead of trekov, "although the Allied bombing was fierce, they were not clear about the deployment of the German forces in the city. The bombing may not achieve the desired results. If we want to destroy the German fortifications, we have to rely on ourselves."

"I see!" After my words, pozharski immediately understood and nodded his head and said, "I'm going to order the artillery to fire on the city!"

Before the end of the shelling and bombing, katukov went to trakov's headquarters. When he saw that I was there, he asked me straightforwardly, "Rita, my tank army is about to attack the city, but the task we are facing is very arduous. In order to make the square and street empty in the street battle, the enemy hid in buildings, the top floor of houses and the basement to organize defense. Tanks can't see the enemy, and they can't get into buildings, roofs and basements. At the same time, tanks are the living targets of anti tank men. They use burning bottles, especially long handled anti tank rockets, to deal with our tanks. "

The problems mentioned by katukov are also my worries. Although I have taught many middle and senior officers the theory of street fighting in the Military Academy of vorongze, I still have a headache for some emergencies when I encounter actual combat.

Perhaps my expression of frowning and thinking made katukov misunderstand. He quickly explained to me, "I'm not saying that our tanks and tank soldiers can't fight in the city. That's not what I mean. In urban street warfare, tanks are also needed, but I don't think they should be used as an independent branch of arms, and they should be equipped with infantry to fight together. "

"General katukov," I took katukov to the map, pointed to the location of the eastern suburbs of Berlin and said to him, "you see, the streets of Berlin are very spacious, completely suitable for our tank operations. In order to prevent the situation you said, we should group the tanks and infantry together and let them work together.

During the attack, the infantry should search about 30 meters in front of the tank to find and destroy the German anti tank men in time; The tanks use two parallel way to move forward, and the two tanks can cover each other's flanks. We used this tactic in the battle of liberation of Poznan.

When we find the enemy's firepower point in the building, our tank fire should immediately destroy it, cover the infantry commanders and fighters, and wipe out all the remaining enemies.... "

After listening to the theory of street fighting that I introduced, katukov discussed with trakov about the cooperative combat, and then he left. At this moment, the shelling is coming to an end.

I heard Vladimirov asking trakov, "Comrade commander, where should we attack?"

"We have to cross the Spree river from here and build a landing site on the other side before the troops can attack the city of Berlin." Trekov pointed on the map with his hand and said: "it comes from the north foot of the lauxitz mountain in the southeast, flows northward through wide swamps, forms many lakes, and joins the Havel River in the Berlin area. Every spring is its flood season. I don't know if our troops can cross the river smoothly

"Comrade commander, you can rest assured that our troops will be able to cross the Spree river smoothly." At the door came the voice of Tkachenko, director of the engineering corps, and with him came major general pokhaznikov, head of the Logistics Department of the group army. Before and after they came to trakov's face, Tkachenko said excitedly: "we transported ten motorboats equipped with Maxim heavy machine guns by truck. It was the comrades of the Dnieper fleet who helped us. With these motorboats, we can quickly send our troops across the river."

"What, you got the motorboat." After listening to what Tkachenko said, trakov jumped up from his seat excitedly: "this is really wonderful. The Spree river is only 200 meters wide. If we use motorboats, it will only take us a few minutes at most to get the troops to the other side. That's great. I'm going to ask for credit for both of you

When they heard that trakov wanted to ask for credit for himself, both of them were smiling. However, Tkachenko said modestly: "Comrade commander, we just did what we should do. If we want to ask for credit, we should ask for credit for these commanders and fighters who died in the front line."

There is always a discrepancy between the plan and the actual situation. Trekov and I both think that if the army wants to successfully cross the Spree river, it can only rely on these ten motor boats and some wooden boats collected by the engineering and logistics departments. Unexpectedly, when our offensive troops arrived at the river, they unexpectedly found that there were a lot of canoes and motorboats for transportation, and even a few barges with large carrying capacity.

After receiving the report, trakov immediately ordered the commander of the front line: "immediately order the infantry to board the ship and attack the other side. We must build our landing site in the German defense line in the shortest time." The ordered troops immediately boarded the ship and, under the cover of machine guns and mortars, launched an impact on the opposite bank. The battle lasted only ten minutes and ended. We learned from the battle reports on the front line that the German Army thought that our army would not cross the river from here, so only a weak garrison was left to defend on the other side of the river. In the face of our army's rapid attack, these troops with extremely low will to fight only made a weak resistance, then laid down their arms and surrendered to our army. After getting the troops to successfully cross the Spree river, trakov immediately ordered pozalski: "Comrade artillery commander, our troops have set up a landing site on the other side of the Spree river, and also captured several barges with large carrying capacity. You can use these barges to cross our artillery across the river, and see the establishment of artillery positions on the other side." When he heard that the artillery could cross the river, bozarsky was very happy. He nodded his head and said, "I understand, comrade commander. I will inform the artillery immediately to go to the Spree river for safety. From there, we can board a boat and cross the river to the other side." After bozarsky left, trakov called Tkachenko in front of him and said, "chief engineer, although we have motorboats and barges to transport infantry and artillery, the speed is still too slow. You immediately organize people to set up a floating bridge on the Spree river, so that our troops can quickly advance to the other side. " After the assignment, trakov turned to me and said, "Rita, as long as our troops are firmly established on the other side of the Spree river, our headquarters can move there."