Early morning April 10, 1944, on the Soviet-German front, Kozlovo. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Newly promoted to general, Chuikov set up his headquarters in this small town less than 10 kilometers from the front line of the fierce battle. He is now the commander-in-chief of the roundabout cluster under the Central Front, and nearly 600,000 troops, including the 7th Guards Tank Army and the 8th Guards Tank Army, are under his unified command.

According to the latest order of Marshal Zhukov: the task of the roundabout cluster was to seize Andreapor and Toropets, and at the same time to threaten the Red October railway line with a favorable passage through swampy and forested areas. If possible, the Red October railway line should also be cut off.

To be honest, Marshal Zhukov was not very demanding. Because the Germans did not deploy heavy troops in the forests and swamps of western Garry, according to the partisan reconnaissance, the Germans now had a relatively strong German mechanized infantry in Toropec, which was driven from the direction of Velikiye Luki along the "road in the woods" opened by the Soviets themselves. There is quite a bit of heavy equipment, including Tank 4, Rhino Tank Destroyer, Grizzly Assault Cannon, Wild Bee Self-Propelled Gun, and more.

But now the muddy season has officially entered in the western part of Kalinin, and much of the previously hard frozen ground is now swampy. How can a heavy army fight a defensive battle in such a terrain, so Chuikov does not take this division seriously.

The big deal is that he can't defeat Toropets - to defeat Toropets is to threaten Veliko Luki, but Chuikov does not believe that the Red Army is capable of launching a second campaign of Veliko Luki, and this threat is actually false.

And now the key is actually Andrea Pol!

This small city is stuck on the choke point of the Soviet army's roundabout northward and eastward advance, although without taking Andreapol, the Soviet army can also approach Valdai in the northeast direction (in the territory of the Novgorod region, near the Red October Railway, one hundred and seventy or eighty kilometers from Andreapol) and Verniy Volochok in the east-northeast direction, but if Andreapov's throat is not taken, the main lines of communication are not smooth. It was no problem to get a part of the lightly armed assault force around Andreapol, but supplies and heavy equipment were difficult to transport.

In this way, even if the Soviet army could approach the Red October railway line, it would not be possible to engage the Germans there.

So such a threat is false.

Zhukov's favorite general, the commander of the 7th Guards Tank Army, Fedyuninsky, walked into Chuikov's headquarters at this time, his uniform was wet, and his large-brimmed hat seemed to have been fished out of the water.

"Is it raining a lot on the front?" Chuikov asked when he saw Fedyuninsky's appearance.

"Huge!" Fedyuninsky said angrily, "Those people in the Meteorological Bureau should go to the labor reform, and they said that it would be sunny today, but now it is raining non-stop...... I think it's going to rain for a few days! ”

"Weather forecast," Chuikov shook his head, "it's supposed to be a guess, where can you completely believe it?" But it didn't hurt us to rain at least, at least the Germans couldn't make a sortie. ”

"But the rate of snow melt is also accelerating," Fedyuninsky said, "and if we don't bypass Andrea Pol now, in a few days even the BT-7 tanks won't be able to get through." ”

The BT-7 also weighs more than a dozen tons, and it can't walk in the mud swamp. Moreover, the infantry of the Red Army also had a lot of heavy equipment and baggage, and once the roads "melted", those artillery and trucks could not move. What's the use of just relying on some light infantry to make a detour?

"Now if you take a roundabout ......," Chuikov asked in thought, "how many days can the troops fight with the supplies, fuel, and ammunition they have at hand?" ”

"The BT-7 can go more than 400 kilometers with a full tank of diesel," Fedyuninsky said, "so there is no need to worry about fuel." Deal...... Treat these tanks as disposable! ”

The BT-7 and the SU-7 modified with the BT-57 were of little value, and if they engaged the German armored forces on the steppe, they would certainly be live targets. Therefore, as long as the detour can be completed, forcing the German army to retreat in great strides, it is not a pity to consume more than 2,000 BT-7 and SU-57 of the 7th and 57th Guards Tank Army.

"As for the artillery and shells," Fedyuninsky thought for a moment and said, "it will be enough to cope with 5-7 days of fierce fighting." ”

"5-7 days?" Chuikov looked at Fedyuninsky.

"Yes!" Fedyuninsky nodded, "Because air supremacy has been grasped by the Germans, our troops can only rely on the ammunition and supplies they carry with them, and it is the limit that they can last about a week." Once the troops break through too far and engage for too long, there will be problems with ammunition, fuel, and supplies. In the wars of '42 and '43, the Red Army had similar difficulties, but now the most serious! ”

There was also a process of the Soviet army's loss of air supremacy, and at the beginning, with a huge numerical advantage and the P51 supported by the United States, the Soviet Red Air Force still had the fighting strength.

But as Germany gained more and more fuel and British aviation technology, it was difficult to see Soviet planes in the air on the Eastern Front.

So from the second half of '43, the commanders of the Red Army front had to count the ammunition, fuel and supplies in their hands to fight.

If it is not a defensive war, that is, the supply is guaranteed for 5-7 days, after which there will be no spectrum.

And Fedyuninsky, who has been leading troops on the front line, is deeply touched by this.

"If in five or seven days we can take Andreapol," Fedyuninsky added, "then we will be able to go on the defensive in the forest west of the Red October railway line, relying on favorable terrain to deal with the Germans." At least until the muddy season is completely over, there are no problems. ”

"In 5-7 days, you should be able to take Andrea Pol!" Chuikov smiled, "It's just a thousand German paratroopers." ”

He said to Fedyuninsky: "Comrade Fedyuninsky, let's make a proposal together and let the 7th Guards Tank Army ...... Advance towards the Valdai. At the same time, with the 16th Army, through the forests and swamps around Andreypol, approached Kuvschinovo and Verkhniy Volochok. ”

……

"Is it only 5-7 days?"

Joseph with a pipe. After Stalin listened to Zhukov's report, his thick eyebrows tightened.

Since the Soviet Central Front was already fighting at the gates of Moscow, Zhukov, as the chief of the General Staff, became the commander of the Front, and Stalin, who was also the People's Commissar of Defense, was actually the political commissar of the Front (the nominal commissar was Shcherbakov in the Moscow region). So every day Zhukov had to report to Stalin in person on the latest developments.

"Yes," said Zhukov, "the weather forecast shows that the rain will end on the 11th at the latest, and at the same time the temperature will rise rapidly, the roads will become very muddy, and considering the threat of the Luftwaffe, logistical transportation will become very difficult from the 12th, and the troops on the front line will have to rely on the ammunition and supplies stored in their hands to fight, so 5-7 days will be the limit." ”

"And after that?" Stalin asked.

"Retreat...... Or switch to defense on the spot. Zhukov paused, then added, "In addition, intelligence reports that a large number of German armored vehicles have been spotted heading south through the Leningrad-Smolensk railway. ”

"The Germans transferred part of the armored forces of the northern route to the middle lane?" Stalin took a puff of his cigarette, "The Germans in the middle will be the main force attacking Moscow?" ”

"The General Staff believes that it is still possible for the German army to outflank from the southern road of Moscow," Zhukov said, "and now that our troops are massed in large numbers on the battlefield in Kalinin, and the south of Moscow is relatively empty, it is possible that the German high command may forcefully take a detour from Kaluga and outflank the south and rear of Moscow, so as to pocket Moscow as a whole!" ”

Due to the restoration of the Russian Empire and the large investment of the French army (which was also related to the restoration of the Russian Empire, because the French were willing to see a strong Russia appear in the European community to contain Germany), the Soviet Red Army was at a qualitative and quantitative disadvantage. The German side, on the other hand, had the strength to attack simultaneously from all directions in order to encircle Moscow.

And once Moscow is encircled, the Red Army in the encirclement of Warsaw, Crimea and Minsk threatens to collapse. And Moscow itself will turn into another Warsaw...... Relying on the strength of the Central Front, there was absolutely nothing that could break the encirclement of the German army. At that time, the most valuable troops of Moscow and the USSR will slowly die in the long siege battle!

Zhukov then said to Stalin: "Comrade General Secretary, now that we have succeeded in the counterattack on the Northern Front, this will effectively delay the German offensive...... As long as we can push the northern front to the Andreypol Kuvshinovo-Torzhok-Likuslavl line, there will be plenty of space to buy time for the decisive battle between the center and the south. ”

Zhukov had quietly removed any capture of Toropets, because after confirming that a powerful mechanized infantry unit had entered Toropets, he realized that it was no longer realistic to capture it.

However, Zhukov was still unwilling to give up his efforts to push the northern front northward -- this was not without significance on the Soviet-German battlefield, where the tactic of exchanging space for defense was prevalent. If a depth of several tens of kilometers can be carved out of the city of Kalinin and north of the Volga, several "cannon fodder armies" can be deployed, and as long as there are enough anti-tank guns and fortifications, these "cannon fodder armies" can also block the German armored clusters for at least a few weeks.

In this way, the Soviets would have the opportunity to concentrate all their Guards Tank Army to break the German attacking forces in the center or south - in fact, there was no need to defeat them, as long as they did not have the strength to encircle Moscow again.