Andréi's proposal for dealing with the national question of the army was submitted with Beria's permission and was to be implemented immediately, and the situation in the defense of Moscow remained the same as it was in history: the German reserves became very strained, while the Soviets preserved the main forces, the reserves were well trained and equipped with the necessary weapons, and in early December they joined the defensive ranks. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

All the way Soviet Army Group was preparing to attack Reinhardt's armored cluster from the flank near Solnechnogorsk. Another army group ambushed Guderian's armored cluster near Stalin's Solnechnogorsk. The rest of the news formed a covering force and was deployed outside Moscow.

On November 29, Zhukov sent a telegram to Stalin: "The commander of the front asks the Supreme Commander-in-Chief to give an order for a counterattack. ”

That night, Stalin gave the order. At first, the Germans were not aware of the potential threat. On 4 December, Army Group Center made the following conclusions, based on the information received: the enemy's combat capabilities were not sufficient to launch a large-scale counterattack.

But the next day surprised the Germans. On 5 December, the flanks of the German panzer cluster suffered a strong blow, and the attacking Soviet troops forced them to advance in the direction of Klin. The Soviets cut off the road to the west and decided to encircle the Germans and cut off their retreat. German detachments desperately tried to repel the Soviet troops and cover the retreat of large forces. However, tanks and other machinery ran out of fuel and had to be abandoned on the side of the road.

The morale of the German army was quickly weakened. "More and more soldiers laid down their arms and retreated west," Shahr recalled. Some led cattle with ropes, others dragged sleds with potatoes, and no one went to bury their comrades who died in the bombing. ”

The same happened near Tula, south of Moscow. Guderian recalled: "On the night of December 6, when I decided to stop all operations and hopelessly retreat to the original line of defense, my heart was very heavy. ”

The situation of the two armies was reversed. The initial demand of the Soviet side to "not take a step back" turned into a call to advance, in order not to give the enemy a chance to breathe and not to regroup their morale. And the order of the German general von Bock was imbued with another flavor: "I order that any retreat must be allowed by the commander of the army group, and the form of the retreat must be approved by me personally." ”

On December 5th, the bitter cold came, the coldest winter in 140 years. A German doctor wrote in his diary: "In such a field, the Soviets could comfortably make a stove out of two empty gasoline drums for heating, while ours could only stand around the fire and burn precious gasoline." ”

Now, Nazi Germany is in danger of repeating the mistakes of Napoleon in 1812. The December counterattack pushed the Germans back to 120 to 150 kilometers from Moscow, the first major defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II.

The whole world saw such pictures, abandoned cars, tanks and planes, and many German prisoners of war.

The "brave divisions", which were quickly withdrawn from Moscow, were punished in the German General Staff. Field Marshal Brauchitsch, Commander-in-Chief of the Army, was suspended, and Hitler decided to take command himself. Field Marshal von Bock was stripped of the title of Commander-in-Chief of Army Group Center and replaced by Kruger. Guderian was suspended until his return to the army in February 1943. Hopner was expelled from the military and deprived of the right to wear a military uniform and receive a pension. He was hanged for his involvement in the July 20 conspiracy against Hitler.

However, Hitler's insistence on being tough did work, and Nazi Germany withdrew in an orderly manner and strengthened the front, with reinforcements filling the gaps in the front. At the same time, the Soviet High Command decided to launch a full-scale offensive on the line from Leningrad to the Black Sea, trying to liberate as many more fallen cities as possible. The fighting of the Soviet troops near Moscow continued, and Kalinin and the Western Front were still trying to advance towards Vyazima, cutting off the supply lines of Army Group Center.

The German command, which was in a critical situation, constantly mobilized forces from Western Europe and decisively entered the battle, consolidating the front. Soviet troops led by Lieutenant General Yevremov and Colonel-General Maslennikov had entered Vyazima, the cavalry units and airborne units of Major General Belov were converted to partisan warfare, and Yevremov, who tried to break through, ended in defeat and committed suicide by drinking bullets for fear of being captured. The same fate fell on Maslennikov, and only Belov's cavalry units crossed the forest area and came to the vicinity of the city of Kalinin to join the main Soviet forces.

But Andrei knew that the Germans then stabilized their position, and in mid-January 1942, the Great Traitor Vlasov's 20th Army and all Soviet troops attacked separately and surrounded some units of the German 9th Army and the 4th Panzer Army in the Vyazma area. But when victory was in sight, the Soviet High Command made a fatal mistake. Ignoring Zhukov's strong opposition, the Soviet High Command prematurely withdrew Kuznetsov's 1st Shock Army and Rokossovsky's 16th Army west of Moscow to reinforce the northern and southern flanks, causing Vlasov's 20th Army, which was trying to attack from east to west, having to widen the frontal width of the offensive and gradually lose its sharpness, which relieved the pressure on the east side of the besieged German army. While the Soviet paratroopers and partisans were trying to close the gap between Yukhnov and Vyazma, they were suddenly met with a fierce counterattack by the German 4th Panzer Army. On 3 February, the besieged German army had opened up contact with the outside world. By 5 February 1942, Moder's German 9th Army had instead surrounded the Soviet 20th Army, cutting it off from friendly forces and quickly annihilating it. Only about 5,000 men of the army group narrowly escaped the encirclement. ”

But now Andre is soft-spoken, he can't rush to the Kremlin and tell the command not to fight back, then I'm afraid the consequences are only two words, shooting! Seeing everyone's blind optimism now, Andrei is also very helpless now, and in early December, the commander of Unit A received an order from Beria to go to the military industry department to check a new weapon, and Andrei was taken aback at a glance, this is AK-47 (Aka is not AK This is the correct pronunciation of Russian), Andrei quickly stepped forward and picked up the gun, put it in his hand to play, and asked directly, "Why did you come out with a sample gun so quickly?" ”

"Comrade Andrei, this is a specially made sample gun at the moment. The molds for mass production have not yet come out, and the extremely skilled comrades in the factory have made several sample guns almost by hand against the drawings, and these two are the best quality. Crochkov next to him explained, and Kolochkov looked at Andrei in surprise and asked, "Andrey, do you know this new rifle?" ”

Andrei quickly explained: "I used to be in contact with engineers, so I knew that there was research on a new type of rifle!" ”

Kolochkov just sighed, did not continue to ask, but took the assault rifle from Andrei's hand, carefully studied it for a long time, and then asked Kuusinin: "Comrade Senior Engineer, what are the characteristics of this rifle?" ”

Kuusinin stepped forward, took the rifle from Kolochkov's hand, put it on the table, and began to give a detailed introduction to several officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs: "This rifle is my newly developed assault rifle, with a body length of 870 mm, a weight of 4.3 kg, and a 7.62 mm bullet, that is, the Mosin Nagant rifle cartridge currently used by our army, which is fed by an arc magazine with a capacity of 30 rounds. The safe/fast handle is on the right side of the receiver, you can choose semi-automatic or fully automatic firing mode, and the pull lever is located on the right side of the receiver. Compared with the rifles equipped by various countries, this rifle has a short body and a shorter range, which is suitable for close-range combat. ”

And Kolochkov said: "Then can we go to the shooting range and try the gun?" "Of course!" And so the two Knochkov comrades took the AK47 with great interest to test the gun, and Andrei began to talk with Kuusinin, Andrei asked in a low voice: "Comrade Senior Engineer, what is the name of this gun, have you found its owner?" ”

The old engineer was stunned for a moment, "This gun is called AK47?" Which master? But then Kuusinin understood what he meant, nodded sharply and replied: "Oh, you're talking about Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov, he has already been found, he has been placed in a military-industrial school, and after completing his studies, he will be appointed a technician at the weapons test site." ”

Andrei asked uncertainly: "Is the assault rifle we are making now exactly the same as the one in later generations?" ”

"The construction of the firearms can be said to be exactly the same." He confidently replied: He continued: "And we have also developed an intermediate power bullet suitable for the AK47." ”

Kusinen was afraid that Andrei would not understand what an intermediate bullet was, and added: "The regular bullet used in the AK47 is 7.62*39 mm, while the Mosin Nagant bullet is 7.62*54 mm, so as long as the length of the cartridge case is shortened to 39 mm and the charge is reduced from 3 grams to about 1.6 grams, this is an intermediate bullet." Although the intermediate bullet has less charge, power and recoil are much less, it can be fired in rapid bursts. With the same load, the fighters could carry a much larger amount of ammunition, and also surpassed the submachine gun in firepower and power, with a higher rate of fire than a semi-automatic rifle. ”

"Oh." Andrei nodded and then Kuusinen told him that because of the problem of the production line, it is impossible to mass produce AK47 now, and now it can only be produced manually by skilled workers, so the output is not high, and it will take time to mass produce it, but it should be possible to produce a batch in these two months, and Unit A is the priority equipment object!

Knowing that it wasn't equipped right away, Andre was a little disappointed, this is really a flower in the mirror, two months, maybe when Unit A will go to the battlefield again!