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Volume Three Far East Stories Chapter 701 (1) Building a Bridge and Preparing for Evacuation

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    July 30, 1918 0210:30 Headquarters of the 1st Ukrainian Infantry Division in the Kharkiv River Forest, fifteen kilometers northeast of Kharkiv

    "Reporting to the division commander, Levchenko, the commander of the cavalry reconnaissance battalion, is back. There are only one company of cavalry left, most of them smoky and injured!" Konstantin, the division chief of staff of the 1st Ukrainian Infantry Division  .Konstantinovich Kravchenko hurriedly broke into the division headquarters

    Here, the division commander Artem Vladimirovich Milevsky, who was seizing the time to catch up on his sleep on the cot and enjoying the leg massage from the orderlies, was shocked when he heard this and turned over to get up.  But the canvas camp bed was not built firmly, and the entire bed, including the person and the person, had to stand on it. When the orderly and Kravshenko helped the division commander up, they found a piece of oily skin on his forehead. "Updated fastest."  All text typed by hand

    An hour ago, he sent the division cavalry reconnaissance battalion of the 1st Infantry Division to search and advance north, and at the same time sent the engineer battalion to the south of the Kharkov River and the section of the river where it meets the 2nd Infantry Division to start erecting a pontoon bridge.  The river was fast and deep, so the pontoon bridge had not yet been erected. Not long after Levchenko's cavalry reconnaissance battalion left, gunshots broke out. At first, Milevsky was frightened, and he quickly ordered his own troops.  The orderly took two messengers to inquire about the situation.

    Fortunately, Levchenko's messengers quickly followed Milevsky's messengers and orderlies back. They said that the cavalry reconnaissance battalion encountered a reconnaissance squad of the opponent on the west side of the forest road 800 meters in front of the right wing position.  The attack is now encircling and attacking, and this coalition reconnaissance force will soon be wiped out." See the latest chapter Beiyang 1917701

    Division Commander Milevsky and Chief of Staff Kravshenko breathed a sigh of relief when they heard this. Although it was bad news that the enemy was catching up, the opponent only had the size of an infantry reconnaissance squad. Obviously, the Chinese armored forces were still far away.  Far away, maybe the Japanese troops did not appear in the forest area along the Kharkov River at all. Milevsky certainly did not believe that his elite division cavalry reconnaissance battalion No. 560 could not deal with the opponent's squad-level reconnaissance troops. Of course, reinforcements  No need, Levchenko should command a battalion to wipe out the opponent in one fell swoop!

    Although the chief of staff of the division, Kravshenko, was uneasy, it was obvious that the division commander was not at all concerned. He did not want to show too much cowardice. At that time, he just asked cautiously,

    "Division Commander, do we want to give reinforcements to Levchenko? This is a forest and shrub area, and there are ponds and ravines everywhere. Levchenko's cavalry is not as useful as infantry if it leaves the road! Move the 1st Infantry Regiment  How about going to a battalion to reinforce?"

    "Joke! Chief of Staff, are you frightened by the coalition's offensive? Levchenko's cavalry battalions are all veteran guerrillas and Cossacks of the Ukrainian National Army. A battalion of 560 people cannot defeat the opponent's reconnaissance  Ban wants reinforcements? You can say this, but can Levchenko say it?

    Forest wetland shrub jungle, wouldn't he fight off the horse?  He doesn't know how to fight once he's dismounted?  No reinforcements are allowed to be sent. Maybe the enemy's scouts have only discovered the Levchenko cavalry battalion on the road, but have not discovered the location of the main force of our division. If you add more reinforcements, as long as another enemy scout slips through the net, we will  The position of the main force of the division is undoubtedly exposed. What if it attracts an air attack from the coalition air force?  "

    At that time, the division commander Milevsky flatly rejected the chief of staff's suggestion of reinforcements. He only ordered the 1st Infantry Regiment position closest to the battle site to pay attention to vigilance and observation. At the same time, he strengthened the alert of his own artillery positions.  The reconnaissance battalion on the road had exchanged fire with the reconnaissance forces of the Allied Powers. In order not to expose the target, the artillery regiment's artillery drove up the road along the path and then moved to the position of the 2nd Infantry Division in the south. Then the plan to enter the bridge section was forced  Terminate, otherwise the artillery regiment's movement of shifting positions would simply be a self-informed signal to the enemy's scouts about the location of their main force.

    So the miserable engineer battalion of the 1st Infantry Division, while trying its best to build the bridge as soon as possible, also had to open a road along the river from the artillery position on the Kharkov River, and on one side, it could directly drag 4 trucks along the road.  The artillery of an artillery battalion was moved south. In the end, the division chief of staff, Kravshenko, felt that this was too much of a waste of time, so he came up with the idea of ??setting up a pontoon bridge to cross the river directly on the east side of the 1st Infantry Division artillery position, so that at least there would be no need to waste time.  Why build a road? Moreover, although the river is much wider in this section of the river, the water flow is much slower than that of the 2nd Infantry Division where the bridge was built, so the difficulty of building the bridge is even lower.

    The division commander Milevsky nodded realistically when he heard this, and then was stunned again, "Chief of Staff, if we don't build the road, then the artillery regiment of the 2nd Infantry Division won't be able to come over either? Can't we just have artillery?"  Withdraw across the river and leave the artillery of the 2nd Infantry Division on the left bank of the Kharkov River?"

    "No, division commander, ask the engineer battalion of the 2nd Infantry Division to continue building the bridge at the location where we built the bridge before. Our two divisions will go together."If we build two bridges, we will have much more room for maneuver. If we weren't afraid of delaying our retreat, we should even destroy the entire northern section of the forest road at this time. However, we still have to wait for Levchenko to infiltrate the opponent.  The scouts are driven away or eaten!  "Division Chief of Staff Kravshenko's idea is obviously not a bad one.

    The vigilance of the artillery position of the 1st Ukrainian Infantry Division was further strengthened, and the engineer battalion also turned back and began to prepare again to build a bridge behind the artillery position of the 1st Infantry Division. What was annoying was that Levchenko's cavalry battalion fought for a long time, but it never came.  The reconnaissance force that was able to deal with the Allied Forces finally managed to drive a platoon of identified enemy scouts away from its original position at the cost of almost half the company, and the sound of gunfire gradually became sparse.

    The position of Milevsky's 1st Ukrainian Infantry Division is nearly 3,500 meters deep from east to west and 4,500 meters wide from left to right. In fact, his division headquarters is on the west side of the artillery regiment, so this division headquarters is far away from Levchenko.  The cavalry battalion and the company led by Tao Dayong were at a fighting position almost 3,000 meters away. Therefore, when this guy listened to the intermittent gunshots 3 kilometers away, his heart felt the same as Lu Huanyan, the commander of the Chinese Armored Regiment of the Allied Powers.  How much does it go up and down? It's unsettled.

    Finally, the gunfire from the northwest gradually subsided. This guy thought that Levchenko's cavalry battalion had finally fulfilled its mission and drove out the opponent's scouts. This guy no longer expected to annihilate all the opponents, even if they could capture a few prisoners.  It might as well be interrogated, but after watching an hour pass, the pontoon bridge built by the engineering battalion on the river bank behind the artillery position reached the middle of the river.
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