"What? Is the Western Front and the Reserve Front going to be merged into the Central Front? ”

"So we're going to join the Battle of Smolensk?"

The news that the deputy commander of the reserve front, Colonel-General Chuikov, and the chief of staff, Major General Shevchenko, brought back Yeremenko, did not think that Smolensk could be held...... Like Pavlov, Zhukov, Shaposhnikov and others, their analysis of the battle situation is also not optimistic. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

In their opinion, the battle of Smolensk was lost! And the second Leningrad relief operation may still be able to fight for it. As for the battle of the Junction, on which Stalin had high hopes, most of them will also be lost, the question is only how much.

Therefore, what the reserve front needs to fight for now is to deploy defenses on the periphery of Moscow as soon as possible, ready to resist the German attack!

As long as Moscow can hold on and the Leningrad relief operation can achieve certain results, then the Soviet Union will be able to drag on the war until 1944...... At that time, it is very likely that Japan will have been defeated by the United States, and the Soviet Union will be saved.

However, to the surprise of the two, their superior, General Yeremenko, was tasked with rescuing Smolensk.

"But we can't save Smolensk." Chuikov shook his head repeatedly, "The Germans will soon be able to complete the outflanking of Smolensk, how can we break this outflanking?" We don't have a tank army ...... again"

"Comrade Commander," Rear Admiral Shevchenko asked, "does the Supreme High Command have any plans?" ”

"There is no plan," General Yeremenko shook his head, "we can fight as much as we want, Comrade Stalin completely trusts us!" ”

Shevchenko sighed in his heart, is that Stalin trusted? That's Pavlov and Shaposhnikov are out of tricks.

"Marshal Nakulik ......"

"Dismissed," said General Yeremenko, "Comrade Stalin was very angry, and Marshal Kulik was most likely unlucky." ”

"So...... Who is going to be in charge of the defense of Smolensk? Chuikov asked in a whisper.

He was afraid that Yeremenkov had assigned to him this doomed errand - he was the deputy commander, and if the front was to set up a command for several army groups, then he should have assumed it.

"This ...... Comrade Chuikov, do you have a suitable candidate? Yeremenkov asked casually.

"I recommend Admiral Yefremov." "He is the current deputy commander of the Western Front and knows the situation in Smolensk very well," Chuikov said. ”

In fact, this Colonel-General Yefremov did not know about the situation in Smolensk, since he was now the commander-in-chief of the Minsk side.

"Okay, then let Comrade Yefremov go to Smolensk." Yeremenkov thought for a moment and said, "I will order Comrade Yefremov to hold on as long as possible...... At least 15 days to defend, and we have to launch a counterattack in 7 days, in any case to repel the enemy from Smolensk! ”

Admiral Chuikov and Chief of Staff Major General Shevchenko looked at each other, this is simply a task that cannot be completed no matter what!

……

"Comrade General Secretary ......" Now it was time for the First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense to report to Stalin on the situation on the battlefield, and Marshal Pavlov stood in front of a huge map and pointed at it with a baton.

"At present, on the battlefield of the Western Front, there are four major battles going on at the same time." Pavlov said, "First, the battle of the junction; the second is the Battle of Smolensk; the third is the Battle of Velikiye Luki-Leningrad; Fourth, the defense of Minsk. Among them, the Bryansk Front was mainly responsible for the Battle of the Junction, the Central Front was responsible for the Battle of Smolensk, and the Kalinin Front and the Leningrad Front were responsible for the Battle of Veliki-Leningrad; As for the defense of Minsk...... I propose to create a separate army group to take charge. ”

Minsk is clearly defending an isolated city, the situation is similar to Warsaw, and if a separate front is formed, then it will be ugly when the whole army is destroyed.

"Who will be the commander of the Minsk Army?" Stalin asked, "Do you have the right person?" ”

"Comrade Yelyomenkov, commander of the Central Front, recommended Comrade Yevremov, who is currently in Minsk, as commander-in-chief of the defense of Smolensk," Shaposhnikov took the question, "so the General Staff recommended Comrade Bagramyan, commander of the 4th Army, as commander of the Minsk Army. ”

Baglamyan's 4th Army had been sent by the High Command a few days earlier to delay the German 3rd Panzer Army, but this mission ended prematurely because the German 3rd Panzer Army had captured Borisov, so Comrade Bagramian is still in Minsk unharmed.

"Okay, Comrade Bagramyan will definitely accomplish the task of holding Minsk very well." Stalin nodded, agreed to Shaposhnikov's recommendation, and did not mention the matter of sending the 4th Army out of the city to die.

"How's the Battle of the Junction going?" Stalin then turned the conversation to the Battle of the Junction, in which he believed that the Red Army would be completely alive if it could win it.

"The 1st and 2nd Tank Armies will be able to reach the vicinity of Gomel on the 9th, but ...... Gomel has now fallen. Pavlov replied, "In addition, the 5th Tank Army has now reached the vicinity of Roslavl, in the south of Smolensk Oblast. ”

"And what about the armored cluster of the southern road of the Germans?" Stalin asked, "Where have they been?" ”

"One broke through to the south into the Chernihiv region, and the other to the north occupied Cherikov, Klimovich and Kostryukovich yesterday."

"Division?" Stalin looked at the two black arrows on the map, one south and one north, and shook his head, "What do the Germans want to do?" ”

"It may be that they want to join their two armored clusters on the northern and central routes, and at the same time rush to cross the Jesna River and open a passage to the south to outflank the Southwestern Front." Pavlov tried to explain the actions of the German troops.

He said: "The Germans may want to complete the three objectives of the forced landing in Leningrad, the approach to Moscow and the encirclement of our Southwestern Front at the same time. ”

Appetite so big?

Stalin gasped and thought: "This is the destruction of the Soviet Union!" The fox tail of Hersmann, the big reactionary, is finally revealed! ”

"We must crush the Nazi conspiracy!" Stalin's face became extremely gloomy, "The battle of the Junction must be carried out as soon as possible, and it must be won!" In addition, the South-Western Front was instructed to send the 3rd Tank Army to reinforce Chernihiv in order to cooperate with the operations of the Bryansk Front in the Junction! ”

Stalin, who sensed the seriousness of the problem, once again raised the ante and increased the number of tank armies for the Battle of the Junction to 4!

However, at this time, the opponent of the Soviets in the Battle of Junction, General Mackensen, the commander of the German 1st Panzer Army, did not know that his army group had attracted the Soviet Union's four tank armies. Because none of the troops he sent to the east, north, and west had yet to meet the large tank forces of the Soviets.

On the afternoon of 7 May, the entire 1st Panzer Army thought that they had stepped on an empty door this time, and that they were waiting for the good news of victory in the war in a leisurely combat operation like an outing.

Graduated from the National Kyiv University of Female Sniper Lyudmila. Mikhaillovna. Sergeant Honors Pavlyuchenko (although she participated in the battle, the conservative Wehrmacht did not recognize her as a warrior and only gave her the official status of "Wehrmacht female assistant", so her rank was honorary), at this time, together with her comrades in the 14th SS Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion (part of the 14th SS Ukrainian Cavalry Division), leisurely marched on the border between Belarus and Russia.

Although the 14th SS Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion was called, it was not a cavalry in the traditional sense, but a special unit mixed with armored and cavalry.

The battalion has three half-cavalry and half-armored reconnaissance companies, each with a platoon of armored vehicles, all armed with wheeled armored vehicles of the SDKFZ234/2 and SDKFZ222 series. The former is the famous Cougar armored car, armed with a 50mm/L60 gun.

This cannon could theoretically penetrate the frontal armor of the T-34 tank at a distance of 600 meters when using tungsten steel armor-piercing shells!

In addition to the SDKFZ234/2 armored vehicles, the Ukrainian SS cavalry division, which has made a name for itself in Lviv and Kyiv, is equipped with the SDKFZ234/3 wheeled assault gun (with a short-barreled 75mm gun) and the SDKFZ234/4 wheeled anti-tank destroyer equipped with a 46x diameter 75mm cannon.

So this Ukrainian cavalry division is a unit that can be used as a lightly armored division! Since there are several decent Panzer Divisions and Panzergrenadier Divisions in the units under the German 1st Panzer Army, "light armored divisions" such as the 17th Ukrainian Cavalry Division of the SS can only engage in fire reconnaissance or something.

However, Sergeant Emeritus Pavlyuchenko, who was riding a horse behind a cougar, and the fighters in her sniper squad had no opinion on not being able to fight the main force.

Because in their opinion, the war for the Ukrainians is almost over - the Ukrainians shed too much blood in Lviv, on the battlefields of right-bank Ukraine! At least 500,000 people (not all of them military) have died in the war, and a large number of others have been seriously injured or missing.

Moreover, the territory of the former Polish Ukrainian state has now been recovered, and the fertile black soil has returned to the hands of Ukrainian farmers. If you continue to fight, it doesn't seem to make much sense...... (To be continued.) )