If you lose one of Leningrad and Moscow, you will be in big trouble, and if you lose two, it will definitely be the end of the Red Soviet Union!

There was no disagreement among the people attending the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau on this conclusion. Pen Fun Cabinet www.biquge.info The main content to be studied at today's enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau is, of course, how to relieve the siege of Leningrad and defeat the enemy who is trying to invade Moscow.

"Comrade Pavlov, Comrade Shaposhnikov, tell me about the battle plan." Stalin raised his hand and pointed to the large military map hanging on the wall of the conference room - a map of the situation on the entire Soviet-German battlefield.

Looking at the situation map, the situation facing the Soviet Union in April 1943 seems to be much better than at the same time in history.

The first is that the Soviet Union did not lose much of its territory, compared to August 1939, before the start of the world war, the Soviet Union lost almost no land. Now the main front of the Soviet and German armies is along the border of the Soviet Union in August 1939.

On the Middle Front, the Germans occupied Western Belarus, formerly part of Poland, and the two fronts were now spread out along the Minsk-Pinsk line (north-south) and the border between East Belarus and the Baltic states (east-west). Moreover, the Germans have been on the defensive in Belarus since the arrival of the muddy season last autumn, with a bit of a point-to-end meaning.

On the Ukrainian battlefield on the southern front, the German offensive continued throughout the autumn and winter until the Germans completely captured Kyiv. But the Germans did not mean to cross the Dnieper, and even when the Dnieper was frozen and the defenses on the east bank were rather empty, the Germans did not cross the river in a big way (of course, there were small-scale fire reconnaissance). It seems that the goal of the Germans in Ukraine is only to obtain the original Polish right-bank Ukraine.

The only place where the Germans crossed the Soviet border in August 1939 was near Leningrad, and they surrounded Leningrad. However, the Germans had no intention of attacking Leningrad, but only besieged it, as if they wanted to force the heroic Leningrad people to submit by starvation.

Of course...... It is also possible that the siege is just a bargaining chip!

As for the real purpose of the Germans, to be honest, even the far-sighted Stalin was now confused.

Because the Germans, on the one hand, did not invade on a large scale, on the other hand, they agreed to open secret talks with the Soviet Union, and they also put forward conditions - to use the Soviet-Polish and Soviet-Finnish borders of August 1939 on the coast of Belarus and the Baltic Sea as the state border of the Soviet Union, and at the same time to transfer the whole of Ukraine to German administration.

The conditions were unacceptable, of course, but the ambitions of the Germans seemed to have been exposed, and they only wanted Ukraine at most, and did not want to destroy the entire Soviet Union.

But at the same time, the Germans supported the former Russian Empress Olga......

Therefore, after studying for a long time, the Bolshevik Party and Government Bureau of the Soviet Union finally came to a conclusion that seemed to be closest to reality -- there was a huge disagreement within Germany about whether or not to destroy the Soviet Union.

The Junker clique of officers, led by Reichsmarshal Hersmann and Reichsal Schleicher, who were mostly friends of the Soviet Union until June 1942 and who had gained a great deal of interest in Soviet-German cooperation and Soviet-German trade, may not have been willing to destroy the Soviet Union.

And the right-wing workers and thieves in Germany, represented by Nazi leader Hitler, are obviously extremely hostile to the Soviet Union, and although these people also carry the sign of socialism, their hatred of the Soviet Union even exceeds that of the greedy capitalists!

"According to the judgment of the High Command, it was determined that the objectives of the German Nazi imperialist bloc in 1943 would be to seize all of Ukraine, to seize Leningrad and Warsaw through a long siege, and to advance towards Moscow in the center, but not to launch an offensive against Moscow......"

Marshal Pavlov first presented the judgment of the Supreme High Command on the intentions of the German troops. The judgment of which the seizure of the whole of Ukraine was based on the Soviet-German secret peace talks, the German ...... At least the target of the German Juncker group is Ukraine, which is very clear, then what they cannot get at the negotiating table is likely to be grabbed by military means, which is what the Junkers officer group has always done.

And the seizure of the isolated city of Warsaw by encirclement is certain, needless to say. As for the gains and losses of Leningrad, it seemed to Stalin that it was likely that Germany's policy towards the Soviet Union would be decided. If Leningrad finally becomes the "Faithful Petrograd of Her Majesty", then the destruction of the USSR may become the national policy of Germany!

If, on the other hand, the people of Leningrad would rather starve to death than give in, and the great Soviet Red Army relieved the siege of Leningrad in time, then the Germans would have fully realized the invincible will of the Soviet people to resist.

As for the judgment that Germany would advance to Moscow in the center but would not take Moscow, it was Pavlov and Shaposhnikov who had carefully studied the German army's previous examples.

Now the German army rarely attacked the fortified city, Warsaw was a siege, Leningrad was also a siege, and Minsk simply ignored it. In the Polish Campaign and the Western Front Campaign, the Germans also had almost no examples of attacking heavily fortified cities. Both Pavlov and Shaposhnikov believed that the Germans seemed to be afraid of the huge casualties that could result from the storming of the fortified city.

The only exception is the battle for Kyiv, which is heavily defended. But most of the Germans attacking Kyiv were Western Ukrainians from Lviv, not Germanic. No matter how heavy their casualties were, they were not bad for the Germans, but for the Germanization of the whole of Right-Bank Ukraine and Western Ukraine......

Marshal Pavlov went on to recount: "Therefore, the People's Commissariat of Defense and the General Staff of the People's Republic of China, after study, concluded that in 1943 the Red Army should adopt a defensive posture in great depth east of the Dnieper in order to respond to a possible large-scale German offensive. At the same time, the Kalinin Front was strengthened, and the Second Leningrad Relief Campaign was launched with this side as the main force.

In the center, it was possible to defend with fewer troops, and the construction of fortifications near the city of Moscow began. ”

"Build fortifications near the city of Moscow?" Stalin abruptly interrupted Pavlov, "Is this necessary?" ”

"Comrade General Secretary, this is only a preventive measure," Pavlov immediately explained, "and at the same time a tactic to deter the Germans, and the German High Command will not easily march on Moscow as long as it knows that it is a fortified city......

"Why can't we keep them in Minsk and Smolensk?" Stalin took a few puffs of his pipe, his face was a little gloomy, "We have been mobilizing since last June, when we launched a preemptive attack in anticipation of the imminent German invasion, and we have also transferred back hundreds of thousands of troops from the Far East, are we not enough troops to keep Germany away from Moscow?" ”

Now the vigorous world revolution has turned into ...... A preventive preemptive strike was taken, and the Soviet-German war turned into the Great Patriotic War.

At the same time as the propaganda caliber was gradually changing, the Soviet government was also doing everything to expand the Red Army. Since the Germans did not penetrate deep into the heart of the Soviet Union and occupied large areas of densely populated territory. As a result, the Soviet government had more favorable conditions for mobilizing and expanding its armed forces than in history. Moreover, the United States also provided a large amount of assistance to help the Soviet Red Army recover quickly.

So by the spring of 1943, the strength of the Red Army was even greater than that of the world revolution of June 1942...... No, it should have been stronger when the preventive Great Patriotic War broke out. The Red Army had already exceeded 12 million troops on its books, and more armies, corps and divisions had been organized, and the size of the mechanized forces was even larger.

Moreover, the tank units of the Red Army are now equipped with a small number of KV-85 heavy tanks that are sufficient to fight the Tiger tanks, and at the same time the number of T-34/57 is increasing, and it has formed a scale.

The Soviets also borrowed from Germany's idea of producing turretless assault guns/tank destroyers from tank chassis, and in late 1942 and early 43 came up with two powerful self-propelled guns, the Su-122 and Su-85.

After the thaw in the port of Vladivostok, the Americans sent 500 M4 medium tanks, 500 M10 tank destroyers, 300 M7 self-propelled guns and tens of thousands of vehicles of various models to the USSR through the North Pacific route. Now all of these American-aided weapons and equipment have arrived in Moscow and are allocated to several newly built tank armies.

However, the Red Army did not become stronger in all respects than it had been before June 1942, and the strength of the Red Air Force was now somewhat weak.

Because after the muddy season last autumn, the fighting between the Luftwaffe and the Red Air Force was still raging. Moreover, the Luftwaffe also adopted the "fuel tank tactic" on the Eastern Front, taking advantage of the large range and excellent low-altitude maneuverability and ground attack capability of the Fokker Zero D series to ruthlessly repair the "small short legs" of Soviet fighters. Let the Soviet Red Air Force suffer heavy losses over the past few months, losing a large number of excellent pilots.

Stalin, however, still believed that the Red Army was strong enough to defend itself from the rest of the country, so there was no need to take action in Moscow that might sway the people. For example, mobilize millions of people to dig ditches and repair trenches outside the city...... This is almost an acknowledgment that Moscow will be attacked, and that the Red Army will be losing ground at the front!

"And we should also hold the line of the Dnieper," Stalin then referred to the Ukrainian battlefield, "Comrade Pavlov, I noticed that you mentioned a defense in great depth, I think you know what that means, right?" ”

"Comrade General Secretary, this ......" Pavlov gritted his teeth, "our forces may not be enough to defend the Dnieper, we need to exchange space for defense ......"

"Where's the defense?" Stalin looked very unhappy, "Are we going to fight the Germans in the industrial zone of Donetsk and Kharkov?" Is there a place where wars are fought? If Kharkov and Donetsk fall or are flattened by artillery, how much steel, how much coal, how much electricity will we lose...... Did you know this? (To be continued.) )