At the time of Molotov's departure, the atmosphere in the Kremlin's conference room remained unchanged. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Stalin, Voroshilov, Zhukov, and Manturov were all buying time to study the situation at the front and how to confront the enemy, while Defense Minister Timoshenko went to the next room to make a phone call to find out the latest developments on the front.

The rest of the people present, namely Andreyev, Kalinin, and Kaganovich, although they did not lie down, their eyes were still open, but their hearts were actually asleep, and they did not say a word, and they did not hear a word.

"Comrade Zhukov, how many troops do you estimate that the German army has mobilized to invade our country?" Before making the corresponding decision, Stalin first had to figure out the strength of the Germans.

"I don't dare to say exactly how much, because we don't have enough information yet. But from my experience, I estimate that they should not have less than 110 divisions. Zhukov's estimates are not accurate, and there are many discrepancies with historical figures.

"Why do you think so?" Although Stalin had a bottom in his heart, the estimated number of troops was about the same as his.

"Based on past experience, Hitler's German army will strive to complete the war in a relatively short time.

To achieve this goal, they must first gather a sufficient number of troops, as well as a large number of aircraft, artillery, and tanks, and use rapid blitzkrieg tactics, with armored troops as the main force, and aircraft and artillery as auxiliaries, to quickly invade their enemy country, quickly encircle and annihilate their enemy.

"But they didn't expect that we had deployed 167 divisions and 2.9 million troops on the Western Front, which should be enough to wipe out 110 divisions of the German army."

"I think that the German army should deploy no less than 170 divisions," Manturov also participated in the discussion, "Georgy (Zhukov) just said that the German army will generally adopt more offensive tactics, strive to encircle and annihilate their enemy in a short time, and end the war as soon as possible."

It is not an easy task for any army to encircle and annihilate the enemy. This is very difficult to do in the case of equal or fewer troops than the other side, and a large number of troops will definitely be required.

In order to achieve the goal of encircling and annihilating the Soviet Red Army, the Germans should deploy at least 180 divisions and more than 3.2 million troops to achieve numerical superiority, so as to achieve the goal of a quick victory. "Manturov analyzed the style of the German army to Stalin.

"If I were Hitler, I would have deployed at least 180 divisions to achieve the goal of quickly encircling and annihilating our army." Stalin took a puff of his cigarette and said: "However, I do not think that fascist Germany is capable of raising such a large number of troops. They hadn't finished the war with the British yet, and they needed a lot of time to train so many recruits.

In addition, their industrial zone was far from the Soviet-German border, and the logistical supply may not be able to meet the huge demand of 180 divisions. ”

"Germany is now a highly militarized country. The German fascist government, in order to achieve the goal of military expansion, did everything, and could even turn all the men and women of Germany into soldiers. Concentrating 190 divisions will not be a problem for them.

In addition, the German-controlled industrial areas of Silesia were not very far from the front line, and their well-developed transportation network allowed them to quickly transport large quantities of supplies to the front. Let's not forget, Germany is still a country rich in cars, and their huge number of cars is definitely enough to cope with the needs of 190 divisions.

On the contrary, although a lot of progress has been made in China's infrastructure work, it is still not at the level of Germany. And although the number of our cars has also been greatly improved, it may not be able to match the level of fascist Germany.

Therefore, we still need to do more work on the issue of logistics supply. ”

At this moment, Timoshenko returned to the conference room.

"Report to the General Secretary that according to the intelligence of the German army, the enemy has gathered 114 divisions on the Soviet-German border, divided into army groups of the North, Center and South, to launch an offensive against our army.

In addition, the Germans have 76 divisions in reserve, which will be rushed to the front line one after another, and the total strength will exceed 3.8 million. ”

As Timoshenko said, the Germans were divided into three army groups, which launched offensives in three directions: the Baltic, Belarusian and Ukraine. Army Group North was commanded by Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Reeb and consisted of three armies with a total strength of 8 corps and 29 divisions, which were responsible for attacking the three Baltic states and entering northern Russia, with the goal of Leningrad.

Army Group Center was commanded by Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, and their goal was to attack Smolensk, cross the Belarusian region, and eventually capture Moscow.

This is the largest number of troops among the three group armies, with a total of 16 armies and 50 divisions under its jurisdiction, with a total strength of 1 million troops.

Army Group South was commanded by Field Marshal Gert von Rundstedt, and it consisted of four armies with a total of nine corps and 35 divisions, with the goal of capturing Kiev and then attacking the Russian steppes in the south up to the Volga and the oil-rich Caucasus.

Hearing Timoshenko's report, Stalin realized the seriousness of the matter. "It seems that the fascists are really determined to fight a big war with us."

"The fascist regime will do whatever it takes to achieve their goal of conquering the world and enslaving the Slavic peoples. We can't let them get their way! Otherwise, it will be not only the 180 million people of the Soviet Union, but also the proletariat of the whole world. Andreyev, who had been silent, finally spoke.

At this moment, Molotov hurriedly walked in and panted and said: "The German government has declared war on our country!" ”

Hearing Molotov's news, Stalin silently sat down in his chair and pondered, and none of the remaining members of the Politburo dared to speak out.

After less than half a minute, the Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Army, Zhukov, quickly broke the silence, "We should violently return the advancing enemy troops with all the forces of the various border districts and stop their advance!" ”

It seems that Timoshenko is not satisfied with Zhukov's goal of "stopping the advance", "not to stop, but to annihilate!" We must annihilate all the German troops that crossed the border to invade! ”

Stalin held his forehead, pondered for half a second, then stood up and said firmly: "Give the order!" ”

"No way!" I don't know which fool actually opposed Timoshenko's proposal when the order was about to be given, "We can't rashly attack the enemy army until the situation is clarified!" In this case, not only will we not be able to stop the enemy's attack, but we will also pay a lot of unnecessary casualties, and the consequences will be very serious.

At this time, we should actively defend, set up a defensive line, and when the time is ripe, we should launch a counteroffensive. (To be continued.) )