"The enemy plane flew away! Comrades, keep working! Come on! ”

As soon as a dozen German FW-190s in the sky were drawn away, Second Lieutenant Pavlov was the first to rush out of the hidden woods and vigorously waved a small red flag in his hand. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Immediately afterwards, a hundred or so Red Army soldiers with axes and saws in their hands came out of the woods - they were at the end of an improvised road carved out of axes and saws, deep in the great forests of western Kalinin.

There is actually a road connecting the city of Kalinin in the Kalinin region to the city of Velikiye Luki in the Pskov region, but most of the roads in the Soviet Union are not very accessible. There are very few roads with hard surfaces that are everywhere in Western and Central Europe, and the so-called roads are actually dirt roads. In the event of heavy rain for several days, it will turn into muddy ground, and the dirt road surface cannot withstand the crushing of a large number of crawler and wheeled heavy vehicles, so the traffic capacity is very limited. Moreover, this road to Velikiye Luki has long been targeted by the German and White Russian armies, and it is impossible to sneak attack through there.

Therefore, after Zhukov took over as commander of the Kalinin Front, he immediately transferred more than 30,000 officers and men from the 11th, 12th, and 13th Guards Infantry Divisions to cut down trees and open roads in the big forest, preparing to spend two months using axes and saws to build three improvised roads that could be passed by tank armies.

But before the road could be cut, the Germans were the first to attack the Belarusian salient. So Pavlov (he now belongs to the 13th Guards Infantry Division) and his comrades worked day and night with axes and saws.

And as the highway approached the German-controlled Pskov Oblast, it became more and more likely that they would be discovered by the Germans and the Russians. Therefore, it is necessary to be extremely careful, not only to pay attention to reconnaissance from the air, but also to send a large number of patrol and alert troops to open an impenetrable search curtain in the border area of the Pskov and Kalinin regions.

On the afternoon of May 1, Sergei . The reactionaries of the 1st Russian Cavalry Division under the command of Colonel Buniachenko had already collided with this powerful search screen of the Soviet army.

The crackling sound of gunfire like popping beans, the dull firing sound of the Soviet Tokarev M1910 heavy machine gun, and the shrill gunfire of the MG42 machine gun tearing sackcloth were intertwined. Occasionally, there were mortars, recoilless guns (after the bottleneck of non-ferrous metals was completely broken, the number of recoilless guns owned by the European Community army also increased significantly, and even the Belarusian army received a lot of 75mm and 105mm recoilless guns) and other light artillery explosions.

Colonel Buniachenko, who had served in the Soviet Red Army for many years, heard this dense sound of gunfire and artillery and immediately became vigilant. Because he knew that with such firepower, an opponent who could fight with his elite cavalry could not be a militia or a guerrilla force at all. The opponent must have been the regular army, and most of them were the elite of the Soviet Red Army.

According to Bunyachenko's knowledge of the Soviet army, these Soviet troops, who were sent to the junction of Kalinin and Pskov regions, must have belonged to the Kalinin Front, of which Marshal Zhukov was the commander!

What do they want to do with the troops belonging to the Kalinin Front, which do not go to the periphery of Leningrad, but appear near Velikiye Luki in the south of the Pskov region? Could it be that the main direction of the Kalinin Front's offensive was not Leningrad, but Veliko Luki?

Feeling that the problem was somewhat serious, Bonyachenko did not dare to delay Her Majesty's restoration cause, and immediately reported his findings and speculations to the headquarters of the Wehrmacht Army Group North in Pskov - although the troops moving south from Velikiye Luki belonged to Army Group Center, Veliko Luki and the entire Pskov Oblast were under the jurisdiction of Army Group North, and Buniachenko's cavalry division was directly subordinate to Army Group Headquarters.

When Bnyachenko arrived at Army Group North Headquarters, the commander of Army Group, Field Marshal Quchler, was visiting Krom Castle on a headland near the Velykaya River in Pskov - the castle was built in 864 AD or earlier, and now belongs to Empress Olga of Russia.

Empress Olga arrived at Krom Castle this morning by train from Tsarskoye Village on the outskirts of Leningrad, where she was scheduled to stop and have lunch with Marshal Küchler, before flying to Berlin to meet the German bigwigs.

For this woman who has been the king of the country for more than 20 years, this is really the most critical moment. Leningrad has been besieged for almost a year, and the supplies in the city have long been almost exhausted. Since April, the Soviets with Leningrad hukou have been "expelled" under various names!

Through these citizens of Leningrad, who "betrayed" the Soviet Fatherland, the Empress learned that the city of Leningrad had almost turned into a hell of hunger. Everything that was edible was used to feed the hungry, the rations of ordinary citizens were so small that they were not enough to survive, and people starved to death every day, and the bodies of the dead would inexplicably "disappear". Beginning in 1943, even the soldiers in the city began to starve, and their morale was extremely low. Everyone is hoping that this catastrophe will end sooner...... Even if the city turns into the faithful Petrograd of Her Majesty the Empress!

Once Petrograd succumbed, Olga ceased to be a precarious monarch in exile.

And the commander of Army Group North, Field Marshal Quchler, shared the Empress's desire to take Leningrad - which may have meant an extra year or two of war for Germany, but it was a great achievement for whom future generations would be proud.

Of course...... As the savior of the Romanov dynasty, tangible benefits are indispensable!

Just as he was happily returning to his headquarters from Krom Castle, Bunyachenko's report had already arrived.

"What? They fought with the infantry of the Red Army in the woods near Velikiye Luki? When Marshal Küchler saw the report handed over by the chief of staff, Lieutenant General Tipelskich, his brow immediately furrowed.

"Marshal, there is a possibility that the Soviet Red Army will make a sneak attack on Velikiye Luki." Lieutenant General Tipelskich had already studied this information with his staff officers.

"Sneak attack?" Qu Hillel thought for a moment, "How many troops can the road east of Velikiya Luki support the passage of?" ”

"There's no problem with an infantry corps," Mr. Tiperskich said, "and if the Soviets had prepared in advance, maybe they could have thrown in a few hundred more tanks." Now the main forces of the 4th Panzer Army are still in Velikiye Luki, and of course they are not afraid of a sneak attack by the Soviets. But if all the troops of the 4th Panzer Army had crossed the Velikaya River in the south, then there would be a bit of emptiness around Veliki. ”

The "Purple Plan" formulated by Hersman and Guderian is very focused on "energy conservation and environmental protection", basically how to save fuel and how to deploy. So the 4th Panzer Army was placed in Velikiye Luki, where the railway from Leningrad to Ukraine passed. In Pskov, the road also intersects with the railway from Moscow to Riga.

The personnel, equipment, and supplies of the 4th Panzer Army, which was based in Velikiye Luki, could be transported directly from the Baltic states and even the German mainland by rail line, which was not only very convenient, but also did not need to consume precious fuel.

And the distance from Velikiye Luki to Smolensk to the south is less than 200 kilometers, which is also connected by rail, but it was cut off because of the fighting. Once the German 4th Panzer Army occupies Smolensk, the railway from Velikiye Luki to Smolensk will also be reopened to traffic in the shortest possible time.

By the way, the problem that the railway gauge in the USSR was different from that of Germany in this time and space did not cause much trouble for the German troops invading the USSR. Because the railways in the Baltic state of Germany, like those in the Soviet Union, were 5-foot gauge.

This is due to the fact that the Baltic states (republics) used to be the territory of the Russian Empire, and most of the railways there were built by the Russians. Moreover, before Germany acquired Poland and Lithuania, the transportation between Germany mainland and the Baltic States (republics) was mainly by sea, and at the same time, the Baltic States (republics) had long served as a transit point for Soviet exports, and the scale of trade with the Soviet Union was extremely large. Therefore, the government of the Baltic State (republic) did not change the railway gauge standard until the outbreak of the Soviet-German war.

Because of this history, Germany's Baltic Railway Department had a large number of 5-foot gauge locomotives and wagons (the trade between the two sides was large before the Soviet-German war), and there were ready-made sea + rail transportation routes, which were very convenient for transshipment of materials.

Therefore, in this "Purple Plan", the German 4th Panzer Army, which fought south from Velikiye Luki, was actually the main force of the German Army Group Center. And the Pskov region is the rear of the 4th Panzer Army, and it is impossible for the 4th Panzer Army to be surrounded once it is penetrated by the Soviets (this army is too strong to be encircled at all), but there must be problems with the logistics of the 4th Panzer Army, so that it will be difficult for the army to continue its operations after the capture or encirclement of Smolensk.

Quchreel pondered for a moment and gave the order: "The 1st SS Panzergrenadier Division, the 7th Paratrooper Division, the Russian Guards Infantry Division, and the Russian 1st Panzer Brigade will be transferred south to Velikiye Luki, under the command of SS General Hausser, called the 'Hausser Cluster'." In addition, the Russian 1st Cavalry Division and the 60th Infantry Division, which are already in Velikiye Luki, are also under the command of the 'Hausser cluster'. There were 3 German divisions, 2 Russian divisions and 1 Russian armored brigade, which should be able to crush the plot of the Soviets. ”

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From tomorrow to the end of the month, 4 more days a day to ask for a monthly pass, ask for a recommendation ticket (to be continued.) )