Chapter 10 8.final preparations

Less than a day and a night after the Military Council had discussed new measures to increase the combat readiness of the army, the telegram came from Moscow.The General Staff asked: Why did the troops in the fortification area receive the order to occupy the former area?Such an action might have spurred the Germans into armed conflict.This order is to be revoked immediately. The telegram disappointed the commander.Because this was originally the result of his decisive action, but now he wants to revoke the original order. But there is new disturbing news from the army. My old cavalry colleague, Chief of Staff of the 5th Army J. C. Pisarev

General Ski flew to Kyiv.Kirponos, Vashukin and Pulkayev were immediately briefed by him.Pisarevsky reported that the Germans were strengthening their dispositions day by day.What is particularly alarming is that the Fascists have begun to remove all the engineering barriers erected on the national borders.Now they are hastily amassing shells and aerial bombs, and laying them directly on the ground, that is, not intending to keep them for a long time.An attack could happen at any time.But our army is still at the permanent location.It takes at least a day, or maybe two days, to occupy the defensive positions built along the national border.And will the enemy give us so much time?At the end of his report, the Chief of Staff of the Army Group asked: Is it not time to issue a combat alert to the border guarding troops?

Kirponos frowned.He said he was fully willing to share his concerns with the army chief.The national border is indeed not peaceful, and the military committee of the military region will take all possible measures.A battle alert cannot be declared now, but serious consideration must be given to moving the first echelon division of the group army closer to the border.In the end, the commander expressed confidence that Moscow knew everything and would give us advance notice and give orders when necessary.Clearly, that time has not yet come. But we know that moment is approaching.On that day, the report of the Chief of Staff of the 26th Army A. C. Varennikov came: the colonel said that "the Germans are building an offensive starting position."

Moscow undoubtedly knows better than we do what is happening across the border, and our highest military command has finally taken steps. On June 15th we received orders to move all five infantry corps of the second echelon to the border from June 17th.We are ready for this.The reader will recall that as early as the beginning of May we did a lot of work in accordance with Moscow's instructions: we drew up instructions for the armies, surveyed the lines of advance and areas of concentration.Now all that is left to do is give the executor a password.We did it right away. The time for each army to prepare for a forced march is two to three days and nights.Some divisions will set off on the evening of June 17, while the rest will set off a day and night later.They are to carry all the necessities of battle.For the sake of concealment, the army only moves at night.In total they will need eight to twelve night trips.

The plan is written in great detail.In the early hours of June 28, the 31st Infantry Corps should be dispatched by the The Rosten region reaches the border near Kovel.The Army Command should remain in place until June 22; the 36th Infantry Corps should occupy the border areas of Dubno, Kozin, and Kremenets in the early hours of June 27; That is to say, it should be concentrated in the areas of Peremeshlyany, Brezhany, and Dunayuf; the 55th Infantry Army (less than one division, the division stayed in place) on June 25, and the 49th Infantry Army on June 25. Arrive at the border respectively before March 30.

In order to prevent the Hitlerites from being able to detect the movement of our troops, the concentration areas of each army were not selected near the national border, but a few days and nights east of the national border. The Military Council asked the Army Group to send a representative of the Operations Department of the Headquarters to each division to supervise the organization of the march.However, there were not enough personnel in the combat department, so officers had to be transferred from other departments. We work more and more.We need to make necessary revisions to the national border protection plan, prepare campaign maps according to the main campaign directions, write descriptions of marching routes, and study and summarize the reconnaissance data of each army and group army.It is also necessary to receive and accommodate two group armies, and transfer each army to the border...

All this compelled me to repeat to General Pulkayev my earlier request for an increase in the Department of Operations.General Antonov, who was present at the conversation, shook his head and said: "Oh, Ivan Khristoforovich, how can you talk about an increase! I heard that the General Staff was ordered to draw up a new plan to reduce the staffing of the directly subordinate organs and the organs of the military districts by 20% within two weeks. Gotta figure out who you gotta break up with." "Where is the order?" Pulkayev said angrily. "We'll get it today or tomorrow," our "organization and mobilization" specialist replied calmly.

"Then let's think about it when we receive it." Pulkayev was silent for a while, and then said: "But I don't allow the compression of the combat department. You can find other departments to be sacrificed." "Yes, Maxim Alexievich," Antonov agreed cheerfully. I can only rejoice: the Chief of Staff does not allow compression... (We finally did not have time to carry out this order, because the war broke out. I later felt that there was simply no way to have such an order a week before the battle began. As I write this, Decided to check to see if my memory was playing tricks on me. Turns out there was such an order.)

As soon as the orders for the march of the armies to the frontier reached the executors, questions and requests began to ensue. The commander of the 55th Infantry Corps first called Pulkayev.He asked: What about the detachments participating in the paratrooper training?Should we send another three battalions according to the plan? Purkayev said to me only after exchanging views with the commander: "Notify the army commander: All vacant units will return to the establishment immediately, and no battalion will be sent for training in the future." Later I learned that the unit participating in the training camp finally failed to return to the army before the outbreak of the war.

The chief of staff's phone kept ringing: some requested that the troops transferred by the head of the military region to perform various tasks be returned to the army system, some demanded the rapid return of the artillery at the range, and some demanded additional means of transportation.All our training plans, economic plans and construction plans are focused on peacetime.Now it's time for a radical overhaul. But not everything is up to us without permission from Moscow. During these unsettling days of June, one meeting with particular vividness remains in my memory.I didn't notice anyone walk into my office because I was buried in my work.

"Hello, Comrade Colonel!" I suddenly heard a loud and cheerful voice. I looked away from the map and saw an old acquaintance of mine standing in front of me.He is Lieutenant General Ivan Stepanovich Konev.Chance brought us together for the first time in 1927 at the Gurzuf Sanitarium, where we got along very well.This new comrade I met was forthright and quick-witted.He read a lot and spent every spare minute reading. At that time, I talked with him about many issues of military life that we were concerned about.Through this conversation, I feel that Ivan Stepanovich is a unique and creative commander. He is not only proficient in tactics, but also an expert in army combat training methods.I discovered that Konev had a certain knack for seeing the germs of new and progressive developments in military affairs.He had a deep abhorrence of all formulaic things, and even deep friendship could not keep him from sharp criticism. We kind of hit it off.One of the reasons, of course, was that our work interests were in many ways the same, since we were both head of the regiment at the time. A few years later we met again at the Frunze Military Academy.Although I am studying in the basic department and he is studying in the special department, we often find time to talk cordially.We went our separate ways after graduation.I watched with interest Ivan Stepanovich's rapid promotion in office, and was sincerely delighted with his achievements.By the eve of the war, he had commanded the Beigao and Pau Gaso military regions, and the main force of the military region had been organized into our new 19th Army.Konev was appointed commander of the army. However, I never expected to see him here, in Kyiv, so soon. We'd love to have a long talk, but we're both very busy.Ivan Stepanovitch asked to be briefed on the military district.I have invited Colonel Bondarev.He told the situation on the other side of the border, and I told the best of my knowledge about the condition and disposition of the troops belonging to the military district.Konev is satisfied. "Thank you for your advice!" he said. "Now I can go to my own army." His voice was as vibrant as ever.He held out his hand to say goodbye to me: "All the best, Ivan Khristoforovitch. Good-bye." It did not occur to us at the time that the next meeting would not be very soon, because I would go to Ternopil with the headquarters of the military district, and Ivan Stepanovich would lead his army to the Western Front. Our brilliant artilleryman Nikolai Dmitrievich Yakovlev has gone to Moscow to head the General Ordnance Department. In mid-June, Mikhail Artemyevich Parshegov took his place.Not many of us know him here.But General Kirponos and Military Commissar Vashukin already knew him when they worked with him in the Leningrad Military District.I studied at the Frunze Military Academy with Parshegov, then a young artillery commander, in the early thirties.We haven't seen each other since. The forty-two-year-old lieutenant general's life path resembles that of most senior Red Army military chiefs.Born in a peasant family in Nagorno-Karabakh, Parshegov worked in a cotton gin in Andijan as a boy, and linked his fate with the Bolsheviks at the age of nineteen.He fought in Central Asia during the Civil War.His "university" was in the Red Army.A sound mind and a rare memory made him a good artilleryman.He commanded the Artillery Battalion before the Thirties, and then the Artillery Regiment.Later, he entered the Combined Arms Military Academy, commanded the Artillery Regiment again after graduation, and soon received an exceptional promotion: he was appointed Director of Artillery of the Leningrad Military District.During the Karelian Isthmus incident, he led the artillery of the 7th Army, and then returned to the military district, from where he went to Moscow as the director of artillery of the Red Army.The three years he worked in the highest post in the artillery were very rewarding for Parshegov.He is already a commander who has high combat attainments and can make bold and quick decisions. On the morning of June 19, while I was reporting to Purkayev on the movement of our armies to the frontier, Parshegov arrived at his office with his chief of staff and chief of ordnance.The restrained silence in Purkayev's office was suddenly broken.The thin, well-proportioned, very restless Parshegov greeted our gloomy Chief of Staff loudly and cheerfully from outside the door, went up to him, and shook his hand vigorously.Then he approached me briskly, stretching out his little bronzed hand, refreshed.The dark brown eyes smiled. "Hello, Ivan Khristoforovitch! We meet again by fate..." Palshegov took my hand with his strong fingers, turned and shouted to the chief of staff: "Look, Comrade Pulkayev, you've met a fellow countryman! Do you know? I didn't expect that!" He turned around abruptly, sat down on the sofa as if he was riding a saddle, carefully arranged the "Gold Star" medal on his chest (he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for his achievements in breaking through the Mannerin defense line), and smoothed his hair. mustache. "Okay, what's your problem with us?" Throughout this lively scene, Pulkayev's face had always retained the solemn serenity and cold humility that were characteristic of him.He began to talk about the substance in a serious manner: the infantry corps advancing to the border carried only a very small amount of ammunition due to lack of means of transportation.How to replenish ammunition reserves? Parshegov shouted: "Bring the picture!" The chief of the artillery staff handed over a folded map.Parshegov quickly opened the picture, looked at it intently for a while, frowned his thin black eyebrows, and opened and closed his lips soundlessly.He looked up. "Our main arsenals are all located on the line where the troops are going. The armies will receive ammunition as soon as they arrive in the designated areas." "The commander of the military district believes that it is best to transport no less than half the base number of shells before the arrival of the armies." Pulkayev said. Parshegov looked intently at the director of ordnance. "Let's work hard," replied the Ordnance Director. "It's not hard work, but completion." Parshegov said firmly. "One more important thing to ask you, Comrade Parshegov," concluded Pulkayev, "that is, to ask you to take care of all the artillery that is still in the barracks due to the lack of traction in the near future. They are all sent to the various armies. For this reason, we will use the remaining cars from the military region's automobile regiment as tractors. If there are not enough cars, the rest of the artillery will be transported by rail immediately." "Okay. Let's finish it." The Artillery Chief said still so firmly, and left the office as quickly as when he came in. After a while, his loud, thin, oriental accent came from the corridor. sound. Let me say here in advance that Parshegov fulfilled his promise: he quickly organized the forwarding of ammunition to the areas where the infantry corps were concentrated. Emergency reports from various armies continued to flow.Among the requests I received on June 19, I still recall a telegram from the new commander of the 12th Army, General Bornejelin.He asked the commander under what conditions the anti-aircraft guns could fire if German planes violated our airspace. General Kirponos ordered the Chief of Staff to answer thus: "A fire may be fired if: (1) The military committee of the military region issues a special order; (2) Announcement of mobilization; (3) The cover plan is in effect and there are no specific prohibitions; (4) The Military Committee of the 12th Army is clear that our anti-aircraft guns will not fire at German aircraft in peacetime. " This answer also convincingly proves that, despite all the more resolute measures taken by the Soviet side to cope with the inevitable situation of conflict, it still tried to avoid armed conflict and did not give the Hitlerites the slightest excuse to tear up the non-aggression pact. In the morning of the same day, B. K. Zhukov sent a telegram from Moscow, saying that the People's Commissar of National Defense had ordered the establishment of the leading body of the Front and transferred it to Ternopil by June 22.The telegram requested that this be "strictly confidential, but the personnel of the Military Region Command may be notified in advance." All of these, we have already considered in advance.According to our plan, transporting the entire leadership of the Front by car would not only be difficult, but would also be too revealing.So we decided to use the railroad as well.The commander of the military district ordered the railway convoy to depart from Kyiv on the evening of June 20, while the main headquarters car column departed the next morning. "What about the army?" I asked the chief of staff. "The current order only refers to the leading organs of the military region. You must hurry up and draw up the military region's operational plan, including all the documents for the national border protection plan, and send it to the General Staff. You will then set off behind us by car with your Operations Department, and arrive at Ternopil no later than 7:00 am on June 22." I was naturally surprised that the head of the military district did not take the war department to the command post: in case something happened, they would not be able to command the army, because they had neither a combat staff officer nor an expert in covert communications.But Purkayev disagrees with my proposal that I leave two or three of my staff officers behind, and that the rest, headed by my deputy, set out simultaneously with the Military Council.He said it was unnecessary, since the War Department had reached Ternopil in the early hours of June 22, and it was not necessarily needed before that. "So, everything is going according to plan." The general waved his hand impatiently, letting me know that I don't need to waste time talking. On the evening of June 20, we sent off those who set off by train, and at noon the next day we sent off those who set off by car. The calmness of the head of the military region and the conscientiousness and orderliness of the front army leaders in forming formations and preparing to go on the road had a good influence on everyone.No one showed any particular uneasiness.Someone in the administration even hoped that this would be a planned departure training, and that everyone would be back in Kyiv by next Saturday at the latest. On Saturday we finally sent all the urgent documents to Moscow.Several large cars and trucks drove to the main gate of the military region headquarters.Red Army soldiers and commanders quickly loaded documents, maps, tables, chairs, typewriters, etc. into the car.Everyone had a great time, and there was constant laughter. It is a warm evening.The large and small parks covered with green shade exude a rich fragrance.People in Kyiv are coming home from get off work.There are lively scenes everywhere.No one expected that the peaceful life would be suddenly interrupted at that time. Only ten hours remained before that very ominous moment when the dreaded word "war" rang out from every corner. When our column passed through the urban area with many pedestrians and took the Zhytomyr Highway, it was still very bright.I drove ahead of the column in a car, browsing the newspapers I hadn't read during the day.None of the editions had any disturbing news. But my heart is still not at peace.Apparently because my assistants and I knew much more than what was written in the papers. We hadn't reached Zhytomyr when we heard the intermittent signal of the car behind me.I ordered the driver to pull over to the side of the road and stop.It turned out that several cars had broken down due to various malfunctions.I also had to stop the column several times overnight.These unforeseen delays made it impossible for us to enforce the march schedule.It is likely that I will not be able to bring my car column to Ternopil before 7 o'clock in the morning.But the army is accustomed to doing its best to carry out orders accurately, and this phenomenon cannot be tolerated.Besides, the idea that war might break out at dawn haunted me all night.I then ordered to hasten forward.It was dawn when we were not far from Brod, a small Ukrainian town surrounded by greenery.We stopped here for another ten minutes. Beside each large car or truck, the captain greeted me and reported: "Everything is all right, Comrade Colonel." When I returned to the head of the column and was about to give the "advance" signal, there was a sudden rumbling sound over Broad.Everyone looked up at the sky. We know we have an airfield here with fighter and attack aircraft.Somehow our pilots start their flying days so early... But there was a loud explosion.The ground trembled underfoot.Someone shouted: "Look at that! Look at that! Fire! . . . " Clouds of smoke rose behind Brod.The experienced eye of the motorist saw that the fuel depot was on fire.Everyone froze in panicked silence.A thought arises spontaneously: "Did war break out?!" The last doubt dissipated when we saw the plane with the black N painted on its wings.These planes finished dropping their bombs and were turning over our heads.Three enemy bombers left formation and rushed towards us.People quickly dispersed, lying in roadside ditches.Only a few drivers stubbornly steered their cars.Fascist planes swept over the column twice at ultra-low altitude and strafed with machine guns.After ascertaining that a total of two persons were wounded, I ordered the necessary first aid to be given to them, and continued on my way. There is no doubt that the flames of war have reached our homeland.What's going on at the border now?The thought unsettled me.At that time even most of the covering corps were still scattered far from the national border, and the Second Echelon Army was still 250 to 300 kilometers away from it.Can it withstand the enemy?If they can't stand it, the entire mobilization of the second echelon army will be destroyed, and they will still be in the current state of severe shortage of effective forces and technical equipment when they enter the battle. All this I could only learn about in Ternopil. We made our way there in haste, not caring about the straggling cars any longer. From then on, my long journey of war trials began.