Counterattack on the Northern Front...... Of course, there is a pause. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Otherwise, what did Zhukov do just now with Stalin saying so many "favorable defenses"?

"Comrade General Secretary," said Zhukov, "the cluster on the northern front should now go on the defensive, since the goal of the counterattack has been fully achieved." ”

"Goal achieved?" Stalin asked with some dissatisfaction.

Now the besieged hundreds of thousands of German troops have not been wiped out, the German reactionary named Paulus has not been captured alive, and the enemy has not even begun to break through...... Or more precisely, the enemy's Paulus cluster was not really surrounded, because to the east of the Red October Railway, a road junction called Borovich was still under German control. From there, the Paulus cluster could maintain contact with the main forces of the German Army Group North.

Paulus was surrounded or something...... The Germans are now unaware. Is this a goal achieved?

"It was done," Zhukov replied in the affirmative, "and even better than originally envisaged." ”

"Better?" Stalin looked at Zhukov with wide eyes, "What's so good?" ”

"Fortunately, the Germans launched a hasty attack in the middle," Zhukov said, "and the Germans certainly did not plan to attack in April, because they had too much heavy equipment and a long logistical line, so it was extremely unfavorable to attack in the muddy season." ”

Zhukov was right when he said this, without the counterattack on the northern front of Moscow, the German Central Front would not have been able to march on Moscow on April 20. Although Manstein adopted the tactics of dividing the troops and attacking the court, it still caused a lot of unnecessary damage to the equipment.

"Moreover, the offensive in the muddy season is more conducive to the defense of our infantry." Zhukov also said that "muddy roads are always good for a lighter army." This is also evidenced by the relatively successful defense of the German army on the Northern Front from April 5 to the present. And we're using the same tactics now. ”

"Defend tanks with infantry?" Stalin shook his head, "But tanks can still defeat infantry, only with greater losses." And Germany can now afford to lose a lot of equipment, right? ”

Of course, the countries of the European Community now have about 1.8 times the total production of fuel oil as the Soviet Union, and the supply of non-ferrous metals is also very abundant. As a result, the amount of military production and commonly used heavy equipment is also much greater than that of the Soviet Union!

If it weren't for the fact that the German Wehrmacht led by Hersmann liked to use the European coalition forces and reduced the number of authentic German troops on the Soviet-German battlefield, the Soviet army's counterattack on the northern front would have been a fiasco-defeat-the combat effectiveness of the "servant army" of the French army, the Polish army, the White Russian army, the small Russian army (Ukrainians) and the Hungarian army would certainly not be comparable with the German army, and there were still many contradictions between the Polish army, the white Russian army, and the small Russian army, which was very troublesome to use.

However, the German Army Group Center was not so mixed, except for the foreign volunteers of the SS (whose combat effectiveness was very guaranteed), all of them were Germans.

"Comrade General Secretary," Zhukov did not know...... Or he deliberately ignored the problem of the moisture of the "German army" on the Northern Front, and he could only fight the German Army Group Center as the same color as Army Group North. "Whether the Germans can afford to lose depends on how much we can inflict on them. If we let them lose 2000-3000 tanks on the Western Front of Moscow, I think the defense of Moscow will be won. ”

In fact, this number is not enough!

Zhukov did not know the exact size of the German Panzer Forces, although he knew that Germany had 25 Panzer Divisions and 20 Panzergrenadier Divisions, but the troops were usually not fully equipped in wartime. So Zhukov did not know how many tanks and assault guns Germany threw on the Soviet-German battlefield?

"2000-3000?" When Stalin heard this number, he was silent for a while, "Can it be done?" ”

"Yes." Zhukov said, "I believe that Marshal Konev has such a ability, and he and the Reserve Front will definitely thwart the German offensive west of Moscow!" ”

Konev's performance in the 1943 battle was acceptable, although he still lost Eastern Ukraine, but it was not his fault, but the inevitable result of the fiasco of the Battle of the Junction,

Konev, however, bought time to carry out scorched-earth warfare in much of eastern Ukraine, where most of the factories were blown up or burned, and the 1943 autumn harvest was drastically reduced by the war.

Therefore, Germany and the European Community, which occupied the whole of Ukraine, were still facing great pressure on food supplies in 1944, and had to import large quantities of grain and meat from Argentina and Uruguay. This was also an important reason for Germany's strong involvement in South America. Without seizing the Brazilian coastline, Germany would not be able to establish a blockade to block the southward movement of American submarines and the sabotage fleet, which would have left Europe without enough food - if there were not so many Great Russians, Little Russians, and Belarusians, but the European Union now has to feed many Russians in order to integrate Russia, so the food supply is very tight until Russian agriculture recovers.

In addition, Konev's defensive operations on the Crimean peninsula were met with certain success. The troops under his command repelled several attacks by the Ukrainian Defense Forces between November 1943 and March 1944, and also sent more than 150,000 troops through the Kerch Strait to the Taman Peninsula to join the Caucasian Front (the Crimean Peninsula was not completely besieged, and the German blockade of the Kerch Strait had many loopholes).

Because of these two exploits, Konev's rank of marshal and the title of Hero of the Soviet Union are quite worthy of the name. And Zhukov and Pavlov, too, were optimistic about Konev's ability, transferred him from the Crimean peninsula, and recommended him to be the commander of the reserve front (Orel Front).

"What is Comrade Konev going to do?" Stalin asked about the specific deployment, and he actually recognized Konev's ability, and he also believed that the Red Army would win the defensive battle west of Moscow.

Zhukov said: "Comrade Konev will use the tactics of defensive counterattack and defeat the German army on the battlefield west of Moscow!" ”

"Defend with infantry and mechanized infantry first?" Stalin then asked.

"You are quite right," Zhukov said, "and now the deployment of the reserve front army is in a large depth, and the strength of the front line is not strong, and the main force adopts the method of gradually strengthening the defense, and is placed in the depth zone." Striving to wear down the German army with muddy roads and resolute infantry defenses, and after the goal of the defensive operation was achieved, the General Staff planned to put a powerful tank cluster on the Western Front in Moscow for a counter-assault to strike at the exhausted German armored group.

Therefore, the General Staff proposed to suspend the counterattack operations on the Northern Front, and to transfer the 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th Guards Tank Armies, which were used on the Northern Front, to deploy them to the outer defensive positions west of Moscow together with the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies. ”

"And what about the Northern Line cluster?" Stalin asked.

"At the same time as the tank army retreated, the infantry stopped the offensive and held on to the position." Zhukov replied that "only in this way can the two army groups of the Germans be avoided from simultaneously launching a surprise attack on Moscow." ”

……

At the same time that Zhukov was reporting to Stalin on the operational plan for the defensive counterattack on the Western Front in Moscow, Marshal Konev, with a shaved head and a very dignified look, was watching the battlefield from the bell tower of a cathedral in the city of Sechovka.

In the eyepiece of an American telescope used by Konev, the vast plain, muddy, somewhat barren is in full view. The forward positions belonging to the 1st Red Banner Army were just outside the city of Sechovka, extending to the south and north of the city. Although it was a "deep deployment" and the first line was just a "cannon fodder defense line", the Soviet army spent a long time preparing for the Battle of Moscow. Therefore, it is clear that the defense line outside Sechovka has formed a well-developed defensive system. Minefields, barbed wire, anti-tank traps, anti-tank trenches, trenches, anti-tank strongholds, infantry artillery bunkers are stacked on top of each other. All personnel and equipment movements were carried out through communication trenches, so that at first glance the position looked as if no one was defending.

A round of German artillery bombardment had just ended, and the shells had made countless potholes in the mud at the front of the Soviet positions, but they did not cause too many casualties. There were also a dozen gray-painted fighters in the sky, the pesky Fw-190F/G fighter-bombers.

From the second half of 1943, this fighter-bomber gradually became the mainstream of ground attack aircraft on the Eastern Front, replacing the original Ju87 dive bomber, and together with the German Hs-129 anti-tank attack aircraft, it became the nightmare of every Red Army soldier.

The 1st Red Banner Army, which had been transferred from the Far East, had not been harmed by German aircraft before, so it did not have much experience in air defense, and did not wait for enemy planes to descend low enough into the air before firing into the air with DShK anti-aircraft machine guns, as a result of which the target was prematurely exposed and rockets were fired. Clouds of white smoke slowly rose above the Soviet defenses......

It seems that quite a few GC fighters from the Far East have died heroically!

Konev sighed softly and pointed his telescope farther away at the end of the horizon, where the German tanks and assault guns had already appeared, spitting black smoke and staggering forward, very slow and looking very struggling.

It seems that the mud in April is indeed not conducive to the offensive of tank clusters!

Konev looked at it for a while, but found no Tiger or the legendary E-50A, only a few Grizzly assault guns and a No. 4H tank - a combination that was basically the standard combination for German Panzergrenadiers.

The Grizzly Bear guns fired at enemy positions at close range, with Tank 4H covering the Grizzlies and attacking the opposing tank destroyers and anti-tank fire points, while the Panzergrenadiers who followed attacked with the combined support of the Grizzly Assault Gun and Tank 4.

Konev knew that the Red Army from the Far East would not be able to stop these powerful German troops, but as long as there was a steady stream of cannon fodder and 200 kilometers of defensive depth, the German attack could still be exhausted.

And then it's up to the strength of the Red Army Guards Tank Army!