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Volume 3 Far East Story Chapter 362: Chasing and escaping is so tiring

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    On the night of July 11, 1918, during the retreat of five armies of the 200,000-strong Soviet Red Army on the right bank of the Volga River, the bravest and most unlucky one was the fifth army in the far west. After running through it in the middle of the night, it was out of breath.  After three consecutive battles, they still failed to escape from the encirclement of the coalition forces and ended up with the entire army annihilated.

    The easiest one was Yegorov's Ninth Army. Slavin's Fifth Army was tossing in the northwest. Therefore, Yegorov's three-way breakout plan achieved amazing results on the first night.  The division, with all its artillery, heavy machine gun battalions and lightly wounded personnel, withdrew 50 kilometers from Bafre to Samara in the southwest direction. Along the way, except for the occasional engine sound of the coalition's night-flying reconnaissance aircraft, the sky heard the sound.  Otherwise, there was no interception at all.

    Stepin, the chief of staff of the Ninth Army, even doubted whether the entire army's retreat plan was a wrong choice. Maybe the coalition did not have such a large force west of Ufa, and maybe the enemy had an armored brigade in Almetyevsk.  They only had enough troops, but they were so frightened that 200,000 people from the five armies on their side fled.

    The division commanded by Stepin of the Ninth Army is the oldest Voronezh Infantry Division of the Ninth Army. After encountering a large-scale coalition air attack, there are still more than 7,000 people left. This infantry division is accompanied by 9 artillery companies and five heavy machine gun battalions.  The troops looked like a mighty main force. They walked 50 kilometers southwest at night and then dispersed and camped in the woods in the middle of the night. They did not encounter any obstruction from the coalition forces along the way. The troops were stationed in a location probably in Paris.  The small town Bogdanovka is more than 50 kilometers southwest of Frey, and six kilometers away from the large market town of Severnoe in the south.

    The five lightly-armed infantry divisions on the second route of Yegorov's 9th Army's breakout were led by this man himself. After nightfall, they left Bavre and marched southward. The terrain along this road was open and there were many rivers and swamps.  This guy didn't let the carriages of the artillery company and the heavy machine gun battalion follow this movement, otherwise how could they break out of the encirclement even if they were stuck in the quagmire.

    Each of the five infantry divisions only had 7,000 men left. Yegorov personally led Inza's division to the rear, and asked political commissar Knyagnitsky to lead one division in front. The three divisions in the middle advanced together. That night  Since there was no air attack or ground blockage by the coalition forces, and because Kniewieze's 16th Division took this route when heading north to Ufa, Political Commissar Knyagnitsky led the 16th Division as the vanguard.  It's going quite well in a certain way.

    The five infantry divisions that Yegorov broke through walked for three hours and rested for 30 minutes, then walked for another three hours and rested again. Along the way, they crossed countless rivers and swamps on the Ufa Plain. In one night, they were stunned.  Advancing 70 kilometers south, we arrived at Yakovlevka, 70 kilometers south of Pavly, at dawn on July 12.

    This place is less than 6 kilometers away from a large town called Abdulino in the south. This guy has the same idea as Chief of Staff Stepin. These large towns are important targets for the coalition's aerial reconnaissance after dawn, so they would rather camp.  In the wild woods and hillside depressions, do not easily enter the town to attract flies.

    After the Ninth Group Army retreated, there was not much food and seriously wounded soldiers left behind on the Bafre front line. Carrying them away was a drag on the team and they could not endure the hardship of the rapid march. They could only stay on the ground and wait to be captured by the enemy or captured by the enemy.  Our own people will be accommodated, if the main force of the southern cluster withdraws to the Bafre line in the west.

    Of course, Yegorov's team first withdrew to the west before setting off, and then turned south after leaving the town. This was a last resort, and it was hoped that the seriously injured soldiers who remained would be loyal and unyielding after being captured.  Absolutely unrealistic idea.

    The ones who ran the farthest that night were not Yegorov's five infantry divisions, but the Budyonny special cavalry division stationed in October Town of the Ninth Army. Budyonny's cavalry troops were obviously first-rate elites.  , there were no coalition air strikes or ground troop harassment along the way, but now that Moscow has ordered a retreat, it is clear that the situation has deteriorated to a very dangerous level.

    After nightfall, Budyonny's cavalry division also walked a few kilometers westward, then turned to the southeast and started running at full speed. Budyonny's special cavalry division starting from October Town ran 110 kilometers south-southeast in one night.  , arrived at the Kalinovka line 40 kilometers east of Abdulino at dawn. This night, there was no chance of encountering any coalition air or ground interception. The main enemies of the Special Cavalry Division were rivers and swamps.

    Budyonny was reluctant to throw away two 76mm mountain guns and the division's heavy machine gun battalion. The carriage pulling the guns and machine guns got stuck countless times along the way and was dragged out by the cavalry on their mounts countless times. Finally, they arrived at Kalinov at dawn.  The enemy was stuck in the woods and hidden in the woods around the town. Budyonny knew that the most critical aspect of this breakout was to avoid the aerial reconnaissance of the Allied Air Force reconnaissance aircraft during the day.

    No matter how fast a four-legged cavalry can run, it will still be compared to an airplane traveling at over 200 kilometers per hour.That's not worth mentioning. Budyonny couldn't imagine what it would be like to have 150 planes carrying out air strikes, bombings, and strafing attacks on him. It was not his fault that the war was a coward, and it was not the fault of the Ninth Army. If you want to blame it, blame it.  Moscow and the Eastern Front underestimated the enemy situation in Ufa and seriously misjudged the extent of the Allied forces' involvement west of the Ural Mountains.

    Going back to Ma Xin of the Second Army, because Hevesin led a division to stay to block the pursuing coalition cavalry, his three divisions turned south and drove 10 kilometers before turning west.  He actually escaped the search of the cavalry companies sent by Petrovich to the south and west. How could a team of 28,000 men from three divisions walk across the plain without leaving any traces?

    Ma Xin's brilliance was that he actually ordered the team to walk along a small river flowing in the northeast and southwest directions for a long distance before going ashore and continuing. This caused the cavalry company that chased after them to lose their way, so this guy  The three divisions managed to escape the pursuit of Petrovich's cavalry that night, and the three infantry divisions also stopped and walked in circles from time to time, messing up their footprints.

    One night, the commander of the Second Army, Ma Xin, led three infantry divisions and drove a full 60 kilometers. At dawn, he stopped and looked at the map carefully and found that he had arrived near Lake Algar. The lake was about five feet long and five feet wide.  Kilometers, several small rivers merge into the depression to form lakes.

    The infantry division was so exhausted that it could no longer move forward, so Ma Xin ordered the three divisions to camp and stop in the woods by the lake. Lake Algar was about 40 kilometers away from the road from Milna to Bafre.  However, no trace of the coalition ground troops was found along the way. Ma Xin and the entire army finally breathed a sigh of relief. They marched hard all night without daring to stop or close their eyes. Many soldiers fell asleep by the end.

    Let¡¯s talk about the First Army. Tukhachevsky left two divisions to stop the attack in Yachkovo. His original intention was to lose soldiers to protect the vehicles, so after nightfall he led three infantry divisions to rush southeastward, and headed southeast all night.  The direction extended for a full 70 kilometers. They also stopped to camp and hide at dawn. The three divisions of the First Army stayed at Nikitino, which is 70 kilometers southeast of Milna.  The main road in Killytamak is about 20 kilometers and less than a little.

    Tukhachevsky's three divisions plus Chapayev's remaining cavalry brigade did not encounter coalition ground troops along the way, and they did not hear the engine sound of night-flying reconnaissance planes in the sky. This guy felt quite sad.  Fortunately, the night passed so peacefully. Of course, most of the two divisions left to block the attack were in trouble, but someone had to make sacrifices.

    The night of July 11, 1918 was almost a sleepless night for everyone. The Soviet Red Army on the right bank of the Volga River retreated across the board, and the Ufa Allied Forces Command was a bit unexpected in making up its mind to Moscow so quickly.  , although the situation was remedied, the night and poor weather conditions affected the aerial reconnaissance effect of the night-flying Hawkeye early warning aircraft.

    Jiang Hongyu and Xiong Shihui's troops blocked the Fifth Army in the north and west, and finally, after a pursuit and encirclement in the middle of the night, they finally completely eliminated the three divisions of the Fifth Army's South Route Army, from Army Commander Slaven to Political Commissar Bu Liu.  Mberg and the division commanders below were captured in one fell swoop.

    In the Ufa Central Group that launched a ground pursuit from Ufa, only Petrovich's Second Ural Cavalry Corps captured the enemy's three rear divisions. Although they annihilated two and a half of them, they allowed the enemy's main force to escape.  In the palm of his hand, the 2nd Petrovich Cavalry Brigade, which was advancing alone, was ambushed by the opponent Hevezin using swamps and terrain, resulting in more than 1,500 losses, plus nearly 1,000 losses when the opponent's two infantry divisions were annihilated in the first battle that night.  The cavalry, the Second Ural Cavalry Corps was bitten.

    Of course, the Soviet Red Army lost two and a half divisions on the eastern front, with a total of 23,000 troops, of which 5,500 were killed, and as many as 16,000 were wounded and captured. However, Yankovgai, the political commissar of the opposing group army, actually  He led less than 2,000 people to escape from the encirclement and disappeared without a trace.

    That night, Sergey's two cavalry regiments that outflanked Yachkovo to the south and north failed to find and capture the enemy. Neither did the two cavalry regiments that Petrovich sent from Milna to the north and south.  The enemy was discovered. Similarly, two divisions of the First Army of Ufa sent by Wu Peifu arrived at positions 30 kilometers north and south of the Milna line, but they also failed to capture the enemy.

    The three Russian new divisions of the First Siberian Army led by Wu Peifu personally were like honor guards training at night. What they arrived at Acehkovo overnight was just a cavalry regiment of the Second Cavalry Army guarding 14,000 prisoners.

    At 5 o'clock in the morning on July 12, 1918, after dawn, almost all the troops from both sides who had been tired all night fell asleep soundly on the Ufa Plain with a radius of 200 kilometers. All the troops were exhausted, but at this time it was the coalition aviation that was busy.  Team, not only Hawkeyes 1, 2, 3, and 4 took off at the same time and started a carpet-like flight in the airFor reconnaissance and search, another squadron of 16 dh4 reconnaissance bombers also picked up the traces of the Soviet Red Army troops after the breakout.

    The commander-in-chief of the coalition forces Wang Geng, who had also barely slept all night, also fell asleep soundly and began to catch up on his sleep. Even if the coalition air force could not find the opponent's main ground force during the day, the main coalition ground force that attacked last night would need at least half of the day's rest to recover.  Take the next step.

    Wang Geng believed that hundreds of thousands of Soviet Red Army troops could not disappear without a trace overnight. Although the Russian Red Army was smart enough to evacuate during the day and march urgently at night, Wang Geng believed that with the density of aerial reconnaissance of the Allied Air Force, they would be able to find the Russian Red Army to retreat today.  traces!
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