Zhukov pointed to the map and introduced the counteroffensive operation plan drawn up by the General Staff of the Soviet Red Army, which was named "Operation Bagration". Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

According to Zhukov's vision, the Soviet Western Front was to launch an offensive on the western part of Belarus, advance to the 1940 border (Grodno-Brest line), regain the lost Belarusian territories, and then advance in the direction of Warsaw, Poland, to liberate Poland.

The Southwestern Front, on the other hand, would join forces with the Southern Front and advance towards Galicia and Volhynia, retaking all of Western Ukraine from the Germans and advancing to the 1940 border.

The North-Western Front also made some moves, they would launch a main attack on Lithuania and Latvia, intending to seize the cities of Devinsk and Kaunas, and then advance north from Lithuania to the Gulf of Riga, cut off the land connection between the German Army Group North and the German mainland, and trap dozens of German divisions in Latvia and Estonia.

Such an almost "all-front offensive" plan was not much different from the historical operation Bagration, but the scale of this battle plan was so large that millions of troops had to be invested to carry it out.

And these millions of soldiers also need to have a lot of logistical resources to maintain the operation, and they need to consume huge amounts of ammunition, food, medicine, and other military supplies.

Given the current industrial conditions of the Soviet Union, it was not difficult to produce enough munitions, and even if the production was insufficient, it would be possible to use the huge reserves it had or ask the United States for a little assistance to solve the problem.

However, the logistical transportation capacity of the Soviet army was too weak, the number of military trucks and trains was limited, and the carrying capacity was limited, and whether it could deliver so many supplies to the front line in time was also a big problem.

What's more, the speed of this offensive is relatively fast, and the speed of the transportation of troops is also very high. In the absence of trucks in the Soviet Red Army, the "mechanized movement" of the soldiers was often carried out by tanks. However, the seats in the tank are really limited, and the soldiers can only lie on the hull of the tank, often acting as the "human armor" of the tank.

This situation persisted in the later stages of the war. The "human armor" of Soviet tanks has even become the symbol of the Soviet Red Army, because only the Soviet army has such a feature, while other countries have very few cases of "human tank armor" due to the greater number of trucks, stronger carrying capacity, and fewer tanks.

For now, the carrying capacity of the USSR has improved considerably, at least a lot better than at the same time in history. However, as things stand, it seems that it will be difficult to carry out such a large-scale offensive as Operation Bagration, so Manturov is not too optimistic about this operation.

"Comrade Zhukov, is this plan a little too big? If the three fronts attacked at the same time, they would have to send millions of troops and consume the supplies needed by millions of soldiers. Judging from the current carrying capacity of our army, I am afraid that it will not be able to supply the munitions of the three armies at the same time, let alone achieve mechanized and rapid movement of the three armies at the same time.

Wouldn't it be faster to launch a counteroffensive now? Manturov was also unceremonious in front of the "famous generals of the generation" and bluntly voiced the doubts in his heart.

Zhukov explained: "Comrade Manturov, I admit that the carrying capacity of the Red Army is indeed somewhat insufficient, but in order to support this offensive, the problem is not very big, and this point has been carefully analyzed and studied by our General Staff.

At present, the number of military trucks in our army is about 400,000, and at present, with the assistance of our allies and the significant increase in our truck production, this number will only increase.

If it is not enough, we will be able to use some civilian trucks for military purposes, and I believe that by the time the offensive is launched, we will have 450,000 trucks at our disposal, which is basically enough for our entire army. ”

"Comrade Zhukov, you are right, with the Soviet Red Army having 400,000 trucks, the logistics supply can barely keep up."

Although Manturov agreed with some of Zhukov's views and the fact that the Soviet army had 400,000 trucks, he still questioned: "The Soviet Union's infrastructure construction is still relatively backward, the road conditions are relatively poor, and there are no road connections in the locations of some troops, so the role that trucks can play is not great."

To ensure that all troops have sufficient logistical supplies, trucks are not enough, but also have enough half-track transporters, or even full-track transporters.

At present, the production of half-track transporters owned by our Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Red Army is still relatively small, only more than 4,000, and the full-track transporters have not yet been developed and produced. ”

Both Stalin and Molotov nodded, both feeling that Manturov's concerns were justified, but this did not mean that they agreed with Manturov's position.

"Vladimir Fedorovich," Molotov called Manturov by his first name and patronymic, and then said: "The number of half-track transporters in our army is indeed too small, and the number of trucks is sufficient, but not sufficient.

But the situation is much better now than it was when we counterattacked Romania, when our army had just over 200 half-track transporters, and the number of trucks was much smaller than now, but we did not invest a lot of troops at all, but we also succeeded in liberating Romania and inflicting heavy losses on the local German fascists.

Since the logistical situation is better now than it was then, there should be no major problem in launching Operation Bagration. ”

"Comrade Molotov, you are right, at the time of the attack on Romania, the logistical supply capacity of our army was indeed even worse than it is now.

If we launch an offensive now with 1 million troops, I don't think we'll have any logistical problems.

But this time we are going to attack Western Ukraine, Western Belarus and Kaunas, and we will have to face three German army groups, about 3 million troops, and the Red Army will need to invest at least 3.5 million troops.

The military supply requirement for maintaining these 3.5 million Red Army soldiers is much higher than the military supply requirement for 1 million people, and judging from our army's current logistical carrying capacity, it is still very difficult to accomplish such a task.

If we had launched an offensive with less than 1 million troops in a local area, I believe it would have been easier to deal with. ”

"Vladimir Fedorovich Manturov," Stalin, who had been silent, actually called Manturov's full name in a respectful tone, and then asked: "What do you mean by this 'local area'?" ”

"It's Finland."