Struggle in Soviet Russia

Budapest, Castle Hill.

It was already late at night, but Castle Hill, the area where the Buda Palace was located, was still as bright as day, but it was not the warm lights that illuminated the most prosperous urban area of ​​Budapest before the war, but the dense and continuous light. explode.

Five days ago, on February 2, the Soviet army, which launched a fierce attack on Castle Hill, captured the important highland "Eagle Hill". The large-scale artillery bombardment has never stopped. The unique beeping sound of the Katyusha rocket launcher and the continuous explosion sound even shocked the German soldiers who were stubbornly resisting.

This siege campaign against Budapest has lasted for more than a hundred days. The German army besieged in this city, together with the Hungarian servant army, is now compressed into a narrow area in the Buda Palace area. Although the resistance is still tenacious, Everyone knows that the time of destruction has come.

In the past more than 100 days, the German troops outside the encirclement have launched three large-scale assault operations, trying to break through the Soviet encirclement and merge with the German troops in the encirclement. But the Soviet army in charge of defense is no longer the Soviet army it was in 1941. Their combat capability is no longer comparable to that of the tired German army. What's more, today's Soviet army also occupies an absolute position in terms of equipment. Advantage, they have absolute air dominance.

On the day the Eagle Mountain was lost, the German army dropped the last batch of supplies to the troops in the encirclement. Of the 73 planes on the mission that day, 11 were shot down and 21 were wounded. It can be said that the losses were heavy, that is, from that day on, there was no German aircraft over Budapest.

Today's Budapest is like the second Stalingrad, except that the offensive and defensive sides have been adjusted. Moreover, when the German army besieged Stalingrad, the destroyed city was never surrounded by the German army. The army has always had logistical support. But Budapest is different. The German army here is running out of ammunition and food. The most important thing is that they can't hold it any longer.

Eagle Mountain, an artillery position of the Soviet Army's 2nd Ukrainian Front.

Facing the moonlight, Victor, accompanied by the commanders of the Front Army, including Rokossovsky, walked slowly to the top of the mountain.

Comrade Stalin and the entire People's Commissariat of National Defense have been dissatisfied with the siege of Budapest, which has been fought for several months.

Viktor just arrived at the front line in Budapest this afternoon. He accepted the appointment of the Supreme Command and, as a representative of the base camp, came to the Ukrainian 2nd and 3rd Fronts to supervise the battle.

Before receiving this assignment, Viktor was preparing to go to the Crimea Peninsula. The talks between the heads of the three countries will officially start in three days. As the head of the national security department, he needs to go to Yalta to fight for Comrade Stalin and prepare for the final round. Safety inspection work. Because of this, he was not mentally prepared for this assignment.

When arriving at the front line in Budapest in the afternoon, Viktor went to the headquarters of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, met with Comrade Tolbsin, and listened to his report, and then rushed to the headquarters of the 2nd Front before nightfall. , met with Rokossovsky.

The siege of Budapest was a tough battle, and no one would question this, but as the commander of the two fronts, whether it was Rokossovsky or Tolbsin, he could not take this as a delay. The reason for this city, otherwise, Comrade Stalin could directly send them to a military court.

Fortunately, it was Viktor who came to supervise the battle this time. He had a very good relationship with Rokossovsky. Therefore, he did not put too much pressure on the two front-line commanders, and he did not bossily condemn them. .

When meeting with Torbsin this afternoon, Viktor had already made his position clear. He had already seen what Budapest looked like now. The whole city was similar to Stalingrad in the past. It was about to be bombed to the ground, and all this was It is enough to show the cruelty and difficulty of this battle. After returning to Moscow, he will truthfully report the situation here to Comrade Stalin and the High Command.

But it is one thing to understand the difficulties of the front, and quite another to the task that Moscow has given. This time Victor came to Budapest with a mission. To supervise the battle, it meant that he had to urge the commanders of the two fronts to end the battle as soon as possible. As for the method, it was their own business.

Although neither the Supreme Command nor Comrade Stalin gave a clear deadline for the liberation of Budapest, Victor was able to figure out the thoughts of the leader. At the meeting held in Yalta, as a representative of the Soviet Union, Comrade Stalin would definitely talk about the Hungarian issue. At that time, if Budapest was controlled by the Soviet army, it would undoubtedly maximize the alliance's right to speak.

At this point in the battle, the Germans had lost the ability to counterattack the Soviet artillery positions, but because they were worried that German planes would risk launching air strikes at night, the artillery positions on the top of the mountain were still controlled by lights, only artillery and rocket launchers. The light brought by the launch could not be concealed.

Standing on the windward slope, Victor felt the tremor of the ground beneath his feet, and looked at the night in the distance. As far as the eye could see, half of the sky seemed to be ignited by fire. In the position, red light appeared frequently, and in the slightly higher night sky, there was a purple halo.

Comrade Rokossovsky came over with a telescope. He first used the telescope to look into the distance, then handed the telescope to Viktor and said, "Currently, the area that the Germans are holding is less than 700 meters deep. , mainly in the area around Zell Kallman Square and Hay Square."

"The Germans are now learning something from the tactics we used in Stalingrad," he said after a pause, "and even the Hungarians were very tenacious in their resistance. , its performance was no worse than our performance at Stalingrad."

Victor nodded, he believed that Rokossovsky's statement should be accurate, and if the German resistance had not been stubborn, the city would not have been bombed like this. Look at the liberation of Warsaw, although Western newspapers said that the city was wiped out, but in fact, the situation in Warsaw after the war was much better than the city before it.

Picking up the telescope and bringing it to his eyes, Victor looked at the place where the fire was flickering for a while.

It was night, and the line of sight was very poor. It was difficult to see anything from the field of view of the telescope. The only thing I could see was the rubble-strewn streets, and there were sparks of fire everywhere.

Putting down the telescope in his hand and returning it to Rokossovsky, Victor turned around and walked back, saying as he walked: "Comrade Stalin has clearly expressed his dissatisfaction when he came from Moscow this time..."

"Cough..." Victor had just said this, and Malenen, who was walking on the other side of him, coughed dryly, as if he wanted to say something.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put pressure on you," Victor glanced at him, made a gesture to calm him down, and continued, "As I said before, I understand your difficulties, I also know that relying on the means of executive orders cannot change the situation on the battlefield. Here, I just want to put forward the fact that Comrade Stalin will attend the summit meeting of the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom in Yalta three days later. As far as I know, At this meeting, Comrade Stalin will definitely talk about Hungary, mainly the political situation in Hungary after the war."

Stopping, Viktor turned to look at Rokossovsky on the other side, and then said: "I think, at that time, whether Budapest is in our hands, or still in the hands of the Germans, will directly Determines how much say we can have on the post-war Hungarian issue. From this, Constantine…”

Turning his eyes back to Malenin, he continued, "Mikhail, I think you should know very well how much time you have left to end this battle."

Malinin didn't speak, he turned to look at Rokossovsky.

As the chief of staff of the Front Army, Mali Ning naturally knew very well how the battle was going. For now, although the remnants of the German army only controlled a narrow area of ​​Castle Hill, the defense depth was less than 700 meters, but to be honest, Considering the tenacious attitude of the besieged German army and the fact that they still have tens of thousands of troops left, it is really hard to say whether the Soviet army can end the battle in the next three days.

"Three days, I think there should be no problem in using these three days to end this battle," Rokossovsky said in a cautious tone without looking at Malinin.

Victor nodded with a smile. To end the battle within three days is really not the deadline he set, nor the deadline set by Moscow, but whether the battle can be ended within this deadline is a political issue, to some extent Said that it even concerns the political future of the vast majority of the commanders of the Ukrainian 2nd and 3rd Fronts.

As the representative of the base camp, Viktor did not need to speak so thoroughly. He was able to speak clearly in front of Rokossovsky and Tolbsin, and the other party should really appreciate him.