Holding a copy of Pravda with the headline "Fascist attack on Zhytomyr region, heroically repulsed by the great Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Red Army," Katya said to Manturov, who was sitting next to her: "Volodya, is this what you call 'Operation Grande'?" ”

Manturov glanced at the title and replied: "Yes, that's it." Pen %Fun %Pavilion www.biquge.info"

"Is this a big operation? They didn't attack on all fronts, they just attacked northern western Ukraine, are you so nervous? ”

"Alas!" Manturov sighed, and then explained: "If I had not been nervous, I am afraid that the outcome of this German offensive would have been very different." They would break through the Manturov Line and continue deep into Ukraine, all the way to Kyiv, forcing the Romanian Front of the Soviet Red Army to withdraw to its homeland.

If the Romanian Front does not retreat, the Germans will move south along the Dnieper, advance to the Black Sea coast, cut off the supply lines of the Romanian Front, and then encircle the Romanian Front in the Romanian area, and what will happen after that, you can imagine. ”

"Is it that serious? They are indeed very ambitious in this plan, and they can indeed get good strategic results when it is completed, but do they have enough troops to realize this plan? ”

"Absolutely." "The Germans have invested as many as 40 divisions this time, while the Southwestern Front has only 35 divisions deployed on the Ukrainian front, and the area from the Manturov Line to the Dnieper is even empty, with almost no troops at all," Manturov explained.

If the units of the German Army Group Center managed to break through the defensive line, they would be able to continue deep into the Dnieper River valley and quickly occupy the area from the Manturov Line to the Dnieper River without encountering any resistance.

At the same time, Army Group Center could also move south from the area between the Mozyr Fortress Area and the Krosten Fortress Area, and join the 6th Army of Army Group South to attack the Fifth Army of the Soviet Red Army stationed in the Krosten Fortress Area from the east and west.

In the event that the Fifth Army was eliminated, the main forces of the German Army Group South would be able to break through the defensive line from this area of the Krosten fortress and attack Ukraine.

As long as one fortified area is breached, the role of the Manturov Line will be greatly reduced, and the enemy will be more likely to break through the rest of the line, and then we will probably have to retreat to the Dnieper. ”

"Is it any wonder that Hitler was going on the offensive at this time, they took advantage of the fact that the main forces of the South-Western Front and the Southern Front went to Romania, and the Ukrainian forces were empty, so they took this opportunity to launch an offensive against Ukraine, break through the Manturov Line with the Red Army being inferior in strength, and then occupy the area west of the Dnieper?" Katia guessed.

"It's true that they want to take advantage of the lack of Ukrainian forces to attack, but their main goal is not to occupy the area west of the Dnieper, but to get us to abandon Romania."

"Abandonment of Romania? How can they force us to abandon Romania when they are clearly attacking Ukraine? ”

"According to one of the captured German officers, their previous attack on Romania was carried out only to divert the main forces of the Southwestern Front and the Southern Front from Ukraine to Romania.

After that, they will take advantage of the emptiness of Ukrainian forces to concentrate their forces in the strip between the Mozyr and Krosten fortresses, create a local superiority, and then break through the defense line there and advance in the east and southeast directions, threatening Kyiv.

In this way, it will be possible to force our Romanian Front to withdraw to the Ukrainian area for defense, and prevent important cities and industrial areas such as Kyiv, Donbass, and Kharkiv from falling into the hands of the Germans.

If we do not withdraw to Ukraine, they will advance to the Dnieper, go south along the Dnieper River to the Black Sea coast, cut off the supply lines between Romania and the Soviet mainland, and finally trap the Romanian Front in Romania, concentrate their forces to encircle and annihilate the Romanian Front, and thus obtain the Romanian oil fields.

If the Romanian Front withdraws, they will take advantage of the lack of Romanian forces to launch an offensive against Romania and seize Romania's oil resources.

So the operation was actually aimed at Romania, and the purpose was to allow the Germans to occupy Romania.

But what they didn't know was that we had already deployed a large number of intelligence officers in enemy-occupied areas to provide us with information on enemy troop movements, so that we could grasp their movements in advance.

Moreover, we have far more reserves than they imagined, the reserve front alone has 70 divisions, and the Western Front also has surplus troops at the moment.

As a result, we mobilized 30 divisions from the Reserve Front to Ukraine at full speed and incorporated into the Southwestern Front. With the addition of the original troops of the Southwest Front, the total strength of the Southwest Front reached 65 divisions, and the Western Front also mobilized 10 divisions to reinforce the south.

The German offensive concentrated only 40 divisions. The strength of the Soviet Red Army in the combat area consisted of 35 divisions of the Southwestern Front (including troops transferred from the Reserve Front) and 20 divisions of the Western Front.

At the same time, the Romanian Front also sent some troops from Moldavia and Transylvania to attack the troops of the enemy's Army Group South, pinning down some of their forces, making it impossible for them to mobilize troops from southern western Ukraine to reinforce north.

The Western Front also launched an attack on the German Army Group Center at the same time, preventing them from mobilizing reinforcements from other parts of Belarus to support, and even forcing them to redeploy some of the forces attacking Western Ukraine back to Belarus to reinforce the attacked forces.

As a result, we managed to defuse the crisis, and the Germans, as the newspapers say, were heroically repulsed by the great Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. Manturov told Katia in detail that he had guessed what the Germans had actually planned.

"I see."

"Yes, that's it." "But in fact, they almost succeeded," Manturov analyzed.

Our 5th Army was already half-surrounded by the German 6th Army and the 2nd Army at that time, and they could have launched a flank attack from the east and west, but it is estimated that Field Marshal Bock was too bold and too conservative, so they retreated at a critical moment.

If they do not retreat, even if they break through the Krosten fortress area, they will have to pay the price of hundreds of thousands of casualties, and if they cannot break through the defensive line, these troops will eventually be surrounded and annihilated by our army, and the strength of Army Group Center will be severely damaged.

As a result, after the Germans retreated, they failed to achieve the goal of breaking through the defensive line, and we were unable to encircle and destroy the 41st Panzer Army and the 2nd Army, and the losses on both sides were similar, and in the end we were only a draw. ”

"Bell bell bell! Bell bell bell! "In the apartment, I remembered the rapid ringing of the phone.

Manturov immediately took the phone, only to hear the person on the phone say urgently: "Come to the Kremlin immediately." ”

"Yes! Comrade Stalin, I'll come right over. ”