"Comrade General Secretary, the situation at the front is generally favorable for us......"

Although his mind had long been overshadowed by the ominous omen of defeat, Zhukov nevertheless came to a "generally favorable" conclusion when he reported to Stalin on the situation at the front. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

It is not that Zhukov reported good news or bad news, but that the Soviet military god found some changes in the battlefield situation favorable to the Soviet army on the battlefield of the Northern Front in Moscow, which was intractable -- this gratifying change is that the difficulties encountered by the armored cluster with tanks as the core in the offensive are more serious than at any other time in history!

In other words, in the face of a large number of infantry (mechanized infantry) armed with anti-tank weapons, the tank has lost its former majesty.

And this change was undoubtedly beneficial for the Soviet Red Army, which could not afford to equip a large number of heavy tanks.

"Comrade General Secretary," said Zhukov, "I have just inspected the front and know the situation at the front best. There, our comrades were very brave and fought to the best of their ability. And the reason why they did not achieve very satisfactory results (in Zhukov's opinion, the counterattack on the northern front was already very satisfactory, but Stalin's requirements were relatively high) was mainly due to the fact that the current advantage in the exchange rate of the battlefield was shifting from tanks to anti-tank weapons. ”

"Superiority is shifting to anti-tank weapons?" Stalin's brow furrowed slightly, "Comrade Zhukov, do you mean that the time when tanks dominated the ground battlefield has passed?" ”

"Yes." Zhukov nodded and said, "In 1942 and even earlier, the anti-tank weapons at the disposal of the infantry were very limited and ineffective. But now, the infantry has many ways to fight tanks. Moreover, the tactics of combining infantry and anti-tank armored vehicles have also appeared...... Both ours and the Germans mastered this tactic, and also had almost the same weapons, both very effective. ”

"Are you talking about Iron Fist?" Stalin asked.

There was no concept of protecting intellectual property on the Soviet-German battlefield, and neither side minded copying the other's excellent designs. A typical example is the Iron Fist anti-tank grenade launcher, which was now copied by the Soviet Union, which was inferior in the number of tanks.

"And the SU-57!" When mentioning this weapon, Zhukov seemed a little excited, "We have the SU-57, the White Bandit Army has the 'Olga' tank destroyer, and the Germans have a similar weapon, which is a 15-ton tank destroyer equipped with a 75mm gun. Judging from the situation of battlefield application, this weapon is very effective and is particularly conducive to defensive warfare. ”

The SU-57, the "Olga's Little Hammer" and the "Stalker" are very similar, although they do not copy each other.

They are all the product of the same idea - they all appeared as powerful and inexpensive self-propelled anti-tank guns that could move on their own power and at the same time had a considerable degree of armor.

After two years of fighting with tanks and anti-tank guns, both Soviet and German weapons experts realized that the "self-propelled" and "armoured" anti-tank guns were far more effective than the towed anti-tank guns - a conclusion that could easily be drawn by studying the reports of the front-line troops and the loss exchange ratio.

Therefore, the pursuit of low-cost tank destroyers has become a common choice for the military industrial departments of the Soviet Union and Germany.

And the appearance of the SU-57, the "Olga's Little Hammer" and the "Stalker" was clearly more beneficial to the defending side, especially the USSR, which was losing most of its industrial capacity.

"Comrade General Secretary, on the current battlefield on the Northern Front, light tank destroyers fighting in conjunction with infantry armed with anti-tank rocket launchers and grenade launchers, as well as automatic firearms, have demonstrated extremely strong combat effectiveness. Even if we put in JS-2 to guide the infantry attack, there is a considerable probability that it will be repulsed...... The probability of a successful defense is 87.5%. ”

Ci is not in charge of the soldiers! For a commander like Zhukov, the officers and men below are nothing more than a string of cold figures, and not only will he not feel sad and sad about the heavy losses, but he can also calmly see the changes in the situation on the battlefield from a series of shocking loss figures.

After a pause, he then told Stalin: "And in our defensive operations (where the coalition forces also launch counterattacks), the same tactics and combinations of forces were used, and the success rate of the defense reached 75 percent. ”

That is, the Germans (coalition) launched 4 attacks, and only 1 could win!

"Only 75%? Not as high as the enemy......" Stalin asked with a frown, "is it because there is no air superiority?" ”

"Yes." "But the success rate of the defense of 75% is still very high, and after calculating the results of air strikes, the rate of exchange of losses on both sides is still about 1:1...... Of course, this was achieved without the German commitment to the Tiger and E-50 tanks. ”

Of course, there are some discrepancies between the figures that Zhukov reported to Stalin and the actual situation, and the losses of the coalition forces were not so great, and the losses of the German troops were even smaller. But there is nothing wrong with the general direction, the tank is indeed not as sharp as it used to be.

"Very well," thought Stalin, "and our fighters have no strong defensive positions to rely on." ”

"It's very good," Zhukov said, "if we could have had such a rate of success in defense and loss exchange in the last 2 years, the Germans would have been defeated long ago." So I propose to change tactics as soon as possible and make the coordination of infantry and anti-tank destroyers the main mode of operations of the Red Army in the future. At the same time, we should adjust the weapons production program to mass-produce the SU-57 tank destroyer and reduce the production of the T-34/85 and JS-2 tanks. ”

"The anti-tank effectiveness of the SU-57 tank destroyer surpasses that of the T-34/85 and JS-2?" Stalin was somewhat taken aback by Zhukov's proposal.

Although the SU-57 is quite powerful, how can it surpass the T-85/122 and JS-35 with 85mm guns and 85mm guns?

"No, it's impossible." Zhukov shook his head and said, "But the resources spent on producing one JS-2 can produce at least three SU-57s." And we now also have a stock of more than 10000 tanks of the BT series and the T-26 family (since the replacement of the T-34 with the BT and T-26 series tanks was completed in the USSR before the world revolution, there is a large stock of old tanks). If the SU-26 were to be retrofitted with these BT tanks and T-57 tanks, the cost and man-hours would be more than 90% less than the production of one JS-2 tank. ”

Zhukov made this suggestion because he knew that the Soviet Union would soon lose its national strength to mass-produce and use the JS-2 and T-34/85. And the modification of the stock of BT tanks and T-26 tanks is the only way for the Soviet army to obtain a sufficient number of armored weapons in the future.

"But where do we have so many ZIS-2 anti-tank guns?" Stalin asked with some annoyance.

Due to the fall of Ukraine and Leningrad, the industrial production capacity of the USSR has now been significantly reduced. The factories near Moscow and Stalingrad were moved to Siberia from the winter of 1943, and production was naturally seriously affected in the process.

Of the main industrial bases of the USSR, only the factories of the Urals and Siberia are now functioning normally.

Moreover, the plant in the Urals has been subjected to strategic bombing by German Me264 long-range bombers since last winter, and production has been seriously affected. Not only the production of JS-2 tanks and T-34/85 tanks was less than expected, but even the production of anti-tank guns of the ZIS-2/1943 type was not satisfactory.

"We don't," Zhukov replied, "but the Americans have enough production, and they will supply us ...... Their M1-type 57mm guns are no worse than our ZIS-2, and in recent operations, we also captured shell-piercing shells of the British production, which I think we and the Americans can copy. ”

In fact, many of the 57mm guns used by the Soviet army today are M1 models provided by the United States, which are the American version of the British 6-pounder gun, and the two are exactly the same except for the gun mount. Therefore, it is also possible to fire British 6-pound shell-piercing shells, and the technical department of the Soviet army has used American M1 guns to fire captured 6-pound shell-piercing shells in the past few days, and has also discovered the powerful lethality of this shell.

So Zhukov immediately came up with the idea of cobbling together the stock BT tanks and T-26 tanks with the American M1 guns and turning them into SU-57 tank destroyers, and at the same time equipping them with armor-piercing shells copied by the United States and the Soviet Union.

However, even if the ammunition factories of the United States and the Soviet Union could not come up with shell-piercing shells for a while, the American M1 anti-tank gun was still a very good anti-tank gun. In the case of high-performance armor-piercing shells, the right-angle penetration depth (homogeneous steel plate) at a distance of 500 meters is still 100-112mm (depending on the type of ammunition, the penetration depth is also different), although it cannot penetrate the front of the Tiger and E-50, but it should be able to penetrate the sides of the Tiger and E-50 tanks.

If the SU-57 was used in conjunction with the Red Army infantry armed with the Red Iron Fist and the Bazooka, it would most likely inflict considerable losses on the German Tiger and E-50 in defensive operations.

Stalin also understood that Zhukov's proposal was feasible, he nodded and said: "The proposal to modify the SU-57 is feasible and can be carried out right away." He suddenly stared at Zhukov with a stern gaze, "So...... Can the counterattack on the Northern Front continue now? ”