"I originally had a mechanized 2nd Army in the direction of Ertilly, but this unit, which was going to be transferred to the front line to support, was defeated by the superior armored forces of the Germans rushing over before it could be engaged, most of the tanks were destroyed, and then the enemy took advantage of the situation to occupy Ertilly...... At present, the 11th Army is defending the Michulinsk line, and the 1st Guards Tank Army has just been urgently sent to support, but it may not be able to withstand the enemy's attack. He took a breath, "The enemy's strength is too strong, we have observed more than 1,300 tanks on the north road, nearly 1,200 on the south road, and there are many Tiger tanks and tank destroyers, even the T-43 newly equipped by the Guards Tank Force is not an opponent at all, not to mention that the enemy also has air superiority......"www.biquge.info

Zhukov was stunned, in the morning it was reported that it was 2000 units, and by evening it became 2500 units? That's going up too fast, isn't it? How many troops did the Germans really send? If 2,500 tanks are really thrown into a campaign direction, then the General Staff will have to reassess the entire situation.

"How many tanks do we have?"

"I just transferred 1 corps from the 3rd Guards Tank Army, and the rest of the army is still relatively complete, probably ......" Leitel silently calculated in his heart, "there may be 400-450 more, at most 300-350 tank destroyers, and 100 tanks in other infantry armies." Now the key is not the number of tanks, but the fact that the Germans, having broken through the first line of defense, quickly mingled with the troops in depth of the second line of defense, and the troops were rushed into battle, and at first I wanted them to rush forward to assist the first line of defense......"

Zhukov was speechless, this is a typical melee: the forces in depth want to support the front, but the front is not held, the rear forces are weakened, the two sides fight in the middle of the encounter, and those fortifications do not have the maximum effect at all and fall in a daze.

"How are you going to defend the south wing?"

"At the moment it is the 40th Army that is holding on, but as you know, this army was heavily damaged last winter when it was subordinate to the Voronezh Front, and it has not recovered at all, so it is very likely that it will not be able to hold it, and Comrade Bagramian must be asked to quickly send his capable troops north......"

Zhukov nodded, this is the truth, not to mention the 40th Army, which only recovered after heavy losses, even if it is replaced by other intact group armies, I am afraid it will be the same result. He was silently thinking about a solution in his heart, but in any case, the fact that the positions of the two armies collapsed in one day revealed a strange thing, even if the enemy was really two armored armies, the battle should not be fought like this. As for the transfer of troops from the second line in depth to support, it is even more wrong. The correct approach is to let the first line stubbornly hold on, and if it is really impossible to hold on, retreat to the second line, and then to the third line - so that the resistance of the own side will gradually increase, while the enemy's offensive will be weakened, and the final victory will be achieved by exchanging space for time. In the final analysis, he believed that there was a problem with Leitel's command.

"You haven't found any hostility before? Why was it so caught off guard? ”

It's good that Zhukov didn't say this, but as soon as he mentioned this, Leytel became angry: "We found that the telegram signal in Voronezh was very concentrated, and judged that the enemy was gathering, and after the report was reported, the General Staff said that it was a feint, let us continue to observe; A few days later I asked for planes to be dispatched to bomb first, and Moscow replied that there were not enough bombers, so I should not be impatient; Finally, I ask for 2 more Guards tank corps equipped with T-43s, you say that this is not the enemy's main direction of attack, and you can't give it to me for the time being...... Well, if you can't stop it now, you can blame me! ”

Zhukov's old face turned red, some of the things here were said by Vasilevsky, some of them were said by himself, and now it seems that something is really wrong, but he is embarrassed to say it in front of Leityr.

"I understand the difficulties of my comrades in the base camp, I have also been in Moscow...... It is indeed not easy to take care of all aspects of the situation, I don't want to trouble the leaders for a little thing, and I don't want to blame the superiors for certain decisions, you stand tall, see far, and care about the overall situation, there must be reasons I don't know about this. But now that the situation is so obvious, can the reinforcements be given to me sooner? Leitel nagged and said, "I can't hold Tambov, of course I have to ask Comrade Stalin for guilt, but what about the party and the people?" What will they think of us in the future? ”

Leitel really didn't take it seriously, he worked in the tsarist army until he was a colonel, he joined the Red Army after the October Revolution, he was not even a party member at that time, until he led his troops to suppress the Kronstadt rebellion and surrendered to the Bolsheviks, in 1935 he served as the head of the military training department in the General Staff, and worked until 39 years, although he was 10 years older than Zhukov, and the officers were not promoted quickly, but his style was very steady, and he was also bright, and the Great Purge did not even touch a hair- It is simply unthinkable that such a man as him, who had reached the rank of colonel in the old tsarist army. Although Budyonny also served in the tsarist army, the latter was a representative of the poor soldiers, and Leitel, who graduated from the regular military academy and rose all the way up.

Zhukov's face changed slightly, his tone softened a little, and he sighed: "Anyway, Michulinsk must hold on, even if it is necessary to send reinforcements, it will have to wait a few days...... The mobile units of the Central Front are converging, and they are not here so quickly. ”

"That'...... How many days will it take? ”

"At least 5 days." Zhukov wanted to talk about a week, but when he saw the appearance of the staff officers of the headquarters, he thought that they would not last more than a week, so he quietly reduced it by 2 days.

"Can I shrink my forces back to Tambov only?"

"Retract?" Zhukov was stunned, and subconsciously asked rhetorically, "Michurinsk and the lines of communication are gone?" ”

"I don't want it all!" Leitel waved his hand to explain the reason for this, "Now the front has two army groups stationed in the north and south to cover the two flanks of Tambov and maintain contact with Moscow and the Central Front, but their forces are too weak to resist the attack of the enemy's armored army, rather than barely holding this line of defense and finally being broken by the enemy, it is better to take them back first and concentrate on Tambov - anyway, the enemy will have to besiege this place after breaking through the second line of defense."

If the 11th and 40th armies can be recovered, plus most of the 3rd Guards Tank Army and the 6th Army, I will have 4 group armies in my hands, adding up to more than 300,000 troops, more than 500 tanks, and more than 300 tank destroyers, which can be used as tanks in defensive operations, so that there are almost more than 800 tanks. ”

Zhukov instantly understood the other party's thoughts, he wanted to make 300,000 troops and 800 tanks into a fist, and then all stay in Tambov.

"Judging from the current posture of the enemy, it is clear that the objective of the phased campaign is to encircle Tambov, and this city is an important hub connecting the north and the south, which cannot be easily lost, so we must hold on, and I look forward to a center here to blossom." Leitel first drew a large circle on the map for Tambov, and then an arrow protruded from each direction in the north and south directions.

"As long as Tambov remains in the hands of our Front, the enemy cannot easily turn to Moscow or Stalingrad for the offensive. This Front can hold on to Tambov as a magnet of steel for the enemy's fire, firmly attract the main forces of the enemy forces around the city, and then let Comrade Meretskov's Western Front and Bagramyan's Central Front send strong troops, and they will be swept by another perimeter, and perhaps a great victory will be fought.

I've seen the deployment of the base camp and know that you want to use the strong defenses of Moscow or Stalingrad to fight the defenders of the city to wear down the enemy's spirits, and then throw in reserves for a counteroffensive, which I fully agree with, but there are also dissenting opinions. Moscow's defense is very tight, there are Don and Volga rivers near Stalingrad, which are very unfavorable to the enemy, and if I am the commander of the German army, I will not easily choose to fight, only Tambov holds the center of the north-south communication line, the terrain is flat, there is no river danger, and it seems that the defense system is also average, the enemy will put heavy troops into attack.

Now the Germans are very timid, and after the loss of Moscow, they will not go on a rampage like before, otherwise you would think that Manstein had already hit the city of Astrakhan more than a month ago, why not go on the offensive and stop on the spot? Aren't they afraid of losses yet? ”

Zhukov nodded involuntarily, Moscow and Stalingrad are important and have strong defenses, but the Germans are useless if they don't attack.

As far as I can see, although the German offensive situation is very fierce, the number of people is actually about 350,000, which is not too much, it is just that they have many technical weapons and are relatively well-equipped. This kind of armored army with outstanding offensive capability is very effective in using a large-scale interspersed attack, and how to fight against our poorly trained and poorly equipped infantry divisions here, if we continue to fight mobile battles with them, it will not be useful for another front army. But the siege is different, the infantry can destroy the tanks, and the armored army can only be used as an infantry.

If the armies of the north and south move fast enough, we can even form two encirclements, the first of which is, of course, the enemy encircling us - they surround Tambov's 300,000 troops with 35-400,000 troops; The second layer is that we surround the enemy, surround these 400,000 with 80-1 million troops from the periphery. Of course, on the periphery, you will also be responsible for deploying sufficient reserves and mobile forces to intercept the enemy's break-up and replenishment of forces. However, that was the work of the base camp, and my task was to hold out in Tambov until reinforcements arrived and the final victory was achieved.

Comrade Zhukov, let me tell you from the bottom of my heart, whether there are reinforcements or not has a different impact on the psychological state of the soldiers, if I am convinced that there are reinforcements, the 300,000 troops in my hands can play the role of 600,000 troops when defending the city, and if there are no reinforcements, these 300,000 troops can only play the role of 150,000 or even fewer troops. And the final victory of the war depends on who can hold out longer......" (To be continued. )