"Tell me why. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info" Stalin asked with a calm face, taking out his pipe.

"Comrade Zhukov's strategy is certainly correct on the whole, and any of the three objectives of Tambov, Voronezh and Kharkov are key nodes in the German defensive line, and as long as we can occupy - no, as long as we can deter there, the Germans will be forced to stop the offensive, but I think there are three shortcomings of this strategy that cannot be overcome." Vasilevsky cleared his throat and explained earnestly:

"First, there is a big gap between the combat effectiveness of our army and that of the German army. The performance is particularly obvious in the Central Asian battlefield, the entire logistics supply line of the German army depends on the landing ground on the east coast of the Caspian Sea, and the landing ground is only a German division, more than 15,000 people, but our army uses the two armies to attack from the north and south, with more than 60,000 troops, which is four times that of the opponent, and the technical equipment is also slightly superior to the enemy, but under the enemy's stubborn strangulation and air power, the attack finally returned in vain......

The example cited by Vasilevsky was a small battle on the Central Asian battlefield at the turn of August and September, when the other battlefields on the Eastern Front were silent, fierce battles continued in the Central Asian direction, Rommel led his army group to advance 1,500 kilometers in Central Asia, and fought from the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea to Tashkent in more than two months, repeating the story of fighting from Tobruk to El Alamein. The Red Army's third-line troops deployed here collapsed one after another, and many Central Asian countries and nationalities, including Turkmenistan, Uzbek, and Kazakh, declared independence, forming a situation of "calm on the eastern front and a great war in Central Asia."

In order to save the situation and save face, Stalin took advantage of the fact that the fighting on other battlefields had calmed down and transferred 300,000 relatively combat-ready troops from the Far East and the rear in an attempt to eliminate Rommel's troops. Zhukov did not encircle and intercept Rommel's troops as Stalin intended, because he knew that in such a vast place as Central Asia, let alone 300,000 troops, it would be impossible to block Rommel's armored troops even if he tripled his troops -- he carefully studied the opponent's combat experience in the desert and also learned about the situation from the British side, and believed that cutting off the enemy's supply lines was the most fundamental and effective way.

But time was not on Zhukov's side. On the one hand, he was urged by Stalin, and on the other hand, the situation was too rapid to follow the plan. If he had enough time, he would have scattered his 300,000 troops and slowly harassed the Germans' long supply lines in a fragmented way, leaving Rommel with 100,000 men in a difficult situation - either forced to retreat or bogged down in a quagmire.

However, the German army was advancing too fast, and the momentum of the national independence movements of Central Asia was far greater than the General Staff had predicted, and the method of breaking up into pieces to harass supply lines would soon become infeasible -- small units would be attacked by Central Asian ethnic militants, the Tatars were not weak in combat and will to fight, and in addition to the general hostility of the common population to the Soviet and Bolshevik regimes -- there were many exiled minorities in Central Asia, and there was no room for the Red Army partisans, and the local armed forces would only be eaten up one by one.

Zhukov could only retreat to the next best thing, on the one hand, using part of the troops to lure Rommel into pursuit, and on the other hand, secretly concentrating two corps, including nearly three tank brigades, more than 60,000 men and more than 200 tanks, to attack the German landing ground and the main material hoarding points, according to the assumption, as long as the more than 15,000 people were eaten and the relevant materials were seized or destroyed, the situation in Central Asia could be reversed.

The ideal is very beautiful, but the reality has played a big joke with him.

The German troops who encountered a sudden attack were only a little panicked at first, but they quickly calmed down, relied on the defensive line to hold on to the spot, and focused on calling for air fire support, and the Red Army in the Far East, which was forced to attack, shed blood and could not take advantage of the stubborn defense of the German army and air forces, and the battle began on August 27, but in the end there was no chance to force Rommel to turn back.

The Germans had only about 20 tanks, and on the first day of the war, the three Red Army tank brigades took advantage of their armor superiority to launch an assault, but the results were a big disappointment, and the T-34 and T-43 destroyed by the Ju-87G and 88mm anti-aircraft guns flooded the field of vision. Whenever the Reds attempted to assemble and attack, the He-218s swooped down. The Red Army was forced to move the offensive to the evening, trying to take down the opponent by night and close combat.

On August 28-30, after three days of fierce fighting, the encircled German army was like a reef in the sea, allowing the Red Army attacking troops to rush up like waves, leaving only corpses behind. On August 29, when the night was at its most intensive and dangerous, the Germans, despite the danger of their positions, first illuminated the front of the position with flares, and then fired a large salvo with Himmler's organ, crushing in one fell swoop the two Red Army infantry divisions that were preparing to use the tactical assault of the sea of people.

As time went on, the situation became more and more unfavorable for the Red Army, because the Germans were guarding the landing grounds, with a steady supply of supplies and munitions, and there was no danger of scarcity, and the Red Army after several rounds of strong attacks was already at the end of its power. On 1 September, reinforcements arrived from Rommel, and they were delivered in a Rommelian manner - the Italian paratrooper brigade and General Studente's paratroop division were airborne directly behind the Red Army attacking forces, a large number of ME-323 and AR-232 transport planes landed at field airfields, and even the Italian Air Force combined transport aircraft (transport versions of the joint attack aircraft) joined the ranks.

The improved ME-323H model played a great advantage in quickly transporting 24 new Cougar wheeled armored vehicles with 75mm anti-tank guns to the front line, and Guderian did not use this eight-pair wheeled armored vehicle specialized in desert warfare in the African campaign, but in the vast Gobi in Central Asia, the wheeled armored vehicles played a great advantage, not only with high mobility, but also with anti-tank capabilities comparable to those of the No. 3 assault gun.

On September 2, Zhukov saw that there was nothing he could do and ordered his troops to retreat, and when the fresh troops of more than 60,000 people of the two armies retreated, there were less than 20,000 people left and less than 20 tanks left.

It is clear that the combat effectiveness of the German army in the battle on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea is of typical significance, and although the air force bonus has a great impact on it, on the other hand, it is impossible for the Red Army to gain more than 4 times the superiority in forces in the central theater. Based on the problems exposed by this small campaign, Vasilevsky unequivocally opposed Zhukov's proposal. (To be continued.) )