Chapter 54: The Great War is Coming

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After discussing the next identification work with Turchinov, he left for the headquarters of the Front, because the battle of Lyuban was about to begin, and Andrei did not change this history, according to the battle intention on the document, the goal was to hope that during the period from January 7 to April 30, 1942, the Volkhov Front, with its troops in the center of the front, would break through the German defenses on the west bank of the Volkhov River, annihilate the enemy on the west bank, and then develop an offensive along the direction of Chudovo-Lyuban with the main force. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 Info then struck further to the northwest, in conjunction with the 54th Army of the Leningrad Front, which was attacking from east to west, to isolate and destroy the German Army Group that had advanced to Lake Ladoga. At the same time, the left flank of the Volkhov Front, in conjunction with the 11th Army of the North-Western Front, struck in the direction of Staraya Rusa, Deno, Solzer, and then cut off the enemy's retreat from the Novgorod and Luga directions, with the ultimate aim of crushing the German Army Group North and lifting the blockade of Leningrad.

But now the commander of the Front, Meretskov, wanted to delay the offensive and accumulate forces for a decisive surprise after the arrival of the new army group, but the stronghold, which was anxious to relieve the siege of Leningrad, demanded to launch the offensive without pause, urging the beginning of the campaign to break through the Volkhov River with all its forces as soon as possible. Historically, on January 7, 1942, the day the offensive was scheduled to begin, the Volkhov Front was still not ready. Only 5 divisions of the 59th Army were in place and deployed, and 3 divisions were on their way. The 26th Army had by this time been reorganized into an assault 2nd Army that specialized in breaking through the enemy's defenses, and this group army, which would play an important role in the upcoming battle, had only a little more than half of its troops occupying the starting position. In addition, due to the unfavorable organization of logistics, the lack of vehicles, and the long distance, the speed of transporting and transporting ammunition, material and technical equipment, and grain and straw to the troops is very slow. It can be said that the preparations before the launch of the campaign were not completed, but the time for the start of the campaign issued by the base camp did not change, so on January 7, the Volkhov Front reluctantly switched to the offensive with part of its forces.

Now the commander Meretskov knows very well that his troops are very weak, and if he rashly launches a siege to break the siege, the consequences will be very serious, but he understands that orders are orders and there is no room for negotiation, but the lack of personnel and technical weapons makes him know that the next battle will be very cruel, and now General Meretskov is smoking a cigarette in the headquarters and is speechless, and at this time the guards outside reported that Major Yakov of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is coming, and Meretskov hurriedly said: "Let him in." ”

And walking quickly into the headquarters, Andrei saluted according to the rules and said: "Report to Comrade General, Major Yakov of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was ordered to come and report, please instruct." And Meretskov knew in his heart that he actually did not have the right to command Andrei's internal affairs troops, but he was still very happy with Andrei's face, so he said: "Andrey, in the next operation, the troops are still under the direct jurisdiction of the base camp, and the next actions in the theater still need orders from Moscow, so how you act next still needs instructions from your superiors." After all, during the defense of Moscow, Zhukov had the command of the troops, but he did not have such trust, but he would not be jealous of his old classmates, after all, Zhukov is now a soul-level figure for the Red Army!

And Andrei also knows that the army is also the baby bump of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and it is impossible for Beria to hand over the troops to the command of the Red Army casually, after all, the cost of forming the troops is very high, it is selected from more than 300,000 internal affairs troops and border guards, and it is also equipped with new weapons, so of course such a sharp knife unit must be in his own hands.

Thinking of this, Andrei said: "Comrade commander, that is, if there is no next order, our troops will not be able to go to the battlefield directly?" "This is not good, although Andrei knows that if this is the case, he will be safe, but his next plan to try to change the battle of Liuban will be in vain

And Meretskov was embarrassed and said: "I am the commander of the front, but I said about the affairs of your internal affairs troops, and it doesn't count." Thinking of this, Meretskov continued to mutter: "After all, you are troops directly under the headquarters of the base camp. ”

And then someone outside reported, and Meretskov said: "Come in." A staff officer quickly came in with a telegram, handed it to Meretskov and immediately walked away quickly, after all, the commander was chatting with the people of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the less he heard about it, the better! And Meretskov read the telegram and said: "Andrey, this is an order from the superiors, it says that the next task of the troops is to assist in clearing the infiltration troops of the German army in the rear, and at the same time, the internal affairs troops near the front army are also deployed by you, and I only need to know about your next actions." "The implication is that now Andrei is the boss of the internal affairs forces in this front defense area, and the commander of the front army can only understand the work, and has no direct leadership, if Meretskov wants to intervene in the work of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he has to contact Moscow, of course, with Meretskov's level, he is the person who can talk directly to Stalin, so it is not that Andrei has no constraints, but with the power of the internal affairs forces, Andrei can still do a lot, but the internal affairs troops are in the rear second line for the next operation, Andrei doesn't have any direct help!

Thinking of this, Andrei slandered in his heart: "What is Moscow thinking about letting the special forces guard the rear?" "And Meretskov, who is an old man, knows what this is for, because the army is the most valuable unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the scale is not large now, and the troops have been fighting for many days in the reconnaissance and harassment operations some time ago, and it is normal for them to need to rest and recuperate now, and in the next large-scale operations, the role and space of the troops are also limited, after all, the next main thing is to fight head-on, as for the rear of the German army, you can also transfer the GRU troops to it, so it is normal for the troops to be deployed in the rear this time, After all, there is still a treasure hunt mission, and Andre and the others still need to contact the treasure hunting team.

And although he came from later generations, Andre, who had never been in the officialdom, now only knows that he can't go to the battlefield for the time being, but he doesn't know that this is actually the care and protection of his superiors, but then Andre was not absent from this failed battle!

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