"Comrade Pavlov, have you read the report on the 'German-Polish war'?"

On September 13, 1939, in Minsk, Belarus, in the building of the headquarters of the Belarusian Front, Pavlov had just arrived and met Suselkov, a member of the Military Council (Political Commissar) of the Front.

At this time, the Soviet Red Army implemented a two-chief system, with the military chief and the political commissar jointly leading the army. However, the rank of political commissar (referring to the military rank) is generally not high. For example, Susekov, the military commissar of the Belarusian Front, was a military commissar, and if he was to be awarded the rank of major general, he would be about a major general - this system is actually quite strange. During World War II in history, several members of the Political Bureau who served as political commissars on the front line were only with the rank of lieutenant general. For example, the famous Khrushchev was a "lieutenant general and a member of the Political Bureau".

However, no one in the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army would regard the "junior official" political commissar as transparent, especially since this political commissar was still a superior.

"Comrade Commissioner," Pavlov replied with a military salute to Susekov, and then replied worriedly, "having read the reports on this, the Germans had achieved overwhelming air superiority on the day of the beginning of the war, and in three or four days they had largely crushed the Polish army. Their mechanized units showed great mobility and combat effectiveness......"

As he spoke, Susekov and Pavlov had already walked into the conference room. Both the deputy commander of the Front, Zhukov, and the chief of staff, Pulkaev, have already arrived, only the commander Kovalev has not yet arrived.

"The Germans call it a 'blitzkrieg,'" said Susekkov, who sat across from Zhukov and Pavlov, who discussed the Polish-German war. "Can we play such a 'blitzkrieg'?"

"We?" Pavlov was stunned, he realized that the words of the commissar Susekov were not spoken casually.

Although the Soviet Union and Germany were playing their own tricks on the Polish campaign, the sign of the "socialist axis" still hung up. The Soviet Union and Germany were countries with a "special relationship", and this "special relationship" also included a layer of competition.

It took the Germans more than ten days to beat Poland down, so what about the Soviet Union, which had a more superior social system and a stronger military force, was ready to beat the already half-crippled Poland again in a few days?

"Comrade committee member, we can also fight such a 'blitzkrieg'." "We can also advance 50 to 60 kilometers a day," Pavlov pondered...... Give me a week and I'll be able to hit near the Brest Fortress. ”

"So how many days can Poland be defeated?" Susekoff immediately asked.

Pavlov and Zhukov, who was sitting across the table, looked at each other, and Zhukov interjected: "Comrade Commissioner, the great success of the German 'blitzkrieg' against Poland is related to the erroneous deployment of the Polish army. They deployed their main forces in the border areas, so that the Germans could easily divide and encircle ......"

"Yes, yes, I know what's going on," said Susekov, "but these main forces are gone, and now opposite the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army are mainly militiamen, demoralized, poorly equipped and trained, and there are no planes to use." ”

"There are still some main forces," said Pulkaev, chief of staff of the Front, "and at the moment it is possible to identify the Narev, Veshkov and Lublin clusters, which have now been transferred east and may be deployed in Pinsk and Brest." ”

The problems facing the Soviet Red Army were now somewhat thorny, and if they had attacked with the Germans on September 1 or a few days later, as originally agreed, they would have won a great victory by now. Because at that time the main forces of Poland were on the Western Front, and in the east there were only a few divisions of the regular army and a large number of civil defense units.

But now, there is a ceasefire on the Western Front (armistice negotiations continue, but neither the Germans nor the Polish army are fighting), 3 Polish army clusters, at least 8 infantry divisions, 2 cavalry brigades and 1 tank group (division level), about 150,000 regular troops and 200 tanks have been mobilized to the east of the Bug River. Although the number was not very large, none of these units had been heavily damaged by the Germans, all of them were fully loaded, and the artillery of the divisions had not shrunk.

And what made Pavlov, Zhukov and Pulkaev even more troublesome was that Stalin, when he learned that Bode had ceased fire, did not immediately order a war and sent planes to bomb the Polish railway lines. Instead, he continued to grind for 2 days, and so far he has not ordered a war (in fact, Stalin was also anxious, but he had to find out that Britain and France really would not make a truce with Germany before daring to make a final decision).

Therefore, September 11th and 12th, and today's 13th, and the following days, have become quite critical time windows. The Polish and German armies basically ceased fire, while the Soviets and Poland did not go to war. The Polish high command can use these few days to casually mobilize 3 army groups (clusters) that have not yet been surrounded by the Germans to reinforce the Eastern Front.

And Rez-Himigwe, who had been slow to react in the battle with Germany, actually showed some military talent during these three days. Completely ignoring the fact that negotiations with the Germans were not yet over, he would be able to mobilize three of the four armies/clusters (the Warsaw Army Group was just an empty shelf) and quickly move by rail to Pinsk and Brest on the Eastern Front.

Moreover, the deployment of the Polish army on the Eastern Front was completely different from that on the Western Front. Because the battlefield on the Eastern Front was too vast, the Polish army did not have enough troops to arrange a long defensive line, so it adopted the method of "defending the point". A series of fortresses were built in Lithuania and Western Belarus, such as Vilnius, Baranovichi, Pinsk, Brest. In the case of a war on two fronts and an empty eastern front, the Polish army concentrated its superior forces on Pinsk and Brest to focus on defending the northern front of the Ukrainian Free State.

Of course, it is not difficult to surround these enemies who are huddled together and have a strong position to defend, but it is not easy to annihilate them, and there is no other way to do it except to fight a tough battle.

"Comrade Pulkaev, I know that the enemy has increased the forces of the Eastern Front," Dusev said, "and on the West Belarusian side 9 divisions (including 1 armored group) and 2 cavalry brigades have been added." This brings the total strength to 11 divisions and 3 brigades, plus a number of civil defence and border troops. But we have more troops, more tanks, and an overwhelming advantage in aircraft. Compared to the superiority of the German army on the battlefield on the Western Front, we have an even greater advantage! So in how many days are you ready to turn such a big advantage into a victory? ”

"I can take Pinsk in 20 days." Zhukov had already understood what Commissar Dusekov meant, and now he had to give a timetable for victory that would be much faster than the original plan - in which the storming was carried out in a step-by-step manner. There is no need to rush at all to besiege first, then mobilize artillery and infantry, and slowly carry out artillery bombardment and repeated charges.

But now the situation is different, the German army on the Western Front won a complete victory in just 12 days!

For the Soviet Union, the length of time to win was not only a matter of contention, but also a low risk of uncertainty - who knows how long Germany and Britain and France would fight on the Western Front?

Maybe they will make peace in a few weeks, maybe they will make peace in a few months. Then the USSR will be in great danger!

"Comrade Pavlov, what about you? When will Brest be taken? ”

"Take Brest?" Pavlov was stunned, "But my cluster did not have the task of capturing Brest in the plan!" ”

At this moment, there was a rush of footsteps from far and near, and then the commander of the front, Mikhail. Admiral Kovalev walked briskly. As soon as he entered the door, he loudly announced: "I have just received an order from the People's Commissariat of Defense that in view of the current situation changes, the plan will be significantly adjusted, so the start of the offensive will be postponed until September 15." Before October 15, the general goal of our front is to occupy all of West Belarus east of the Bug River......"

……

"Minister Beck, our demands are very simple, West Prussia, Posen, and part of Silesia that were originally ceded to you, as well as the port city of Klaipeda in Lithuania, and the former Maimer of East Prussia, all of them will be recovered."

Adolph. On September 13, Hitler met with Polish Foreign Minister Joseph, who had arrived from London via the Netherlands, in Berlin. Baker.

Beck had come to discuss with Hitler the terms of the armistice. Of course, the big principles had been established, and Hitler fully agreed - although Poland, a nasty country, still existed, it was obviously a pleasant thing for the Poles to fight the Russians to the death.

Therefore, Hitler was in a very good mood and spoke in a very reasonable tone.

He told the Polish Foreign Minister, who looked very frustrated: "We only wanted to get Danzig back, but you chose war. So the situation is different now, and the borders stipulated in the 1918 Treaty must be restored. If you agree, then we will lift the siege of the two Polish army clusters west of the Buchula River and Radom.

At the same time, your defenders and naval personnel in Danzig can also leave, but the ships of the Polish Navy must be handed over to us. In exchange, we will release the prisoners as soon as possible and return the captured weapons and equipment so that you can use them to resist the Soviets. That's the only thing we can do to help Poland at the moment.

Also, Lithuania, Western Ukraine, we must occupy it temporarily, otherwise the USSR will annex there! If you are defeated east of the Bug River, we will have to occupy all the remaining territories of Poland. ”

Hitler looked at Beck with a very embarrassed look, shook his head, and said: "The term occupation is very harsh, but we must use the word, not the protection...... Because we and the USSR have been traditional allies for 20 years. We can't turn the other cheek in order to protect Poland and the Soviet Union, after all, we are still fighting Britain and France. Therefore, Poland can only be occupied until the end of the war, please understand. ”

Joseph. Berg sighed, "Yes, of course I do. If our country really had to be occupied by foreign countries, it would certainly be better to let Germany occupy it than to let the Soviet Union occupy it. ”

Hitler smiled and said: "Don't worry, it's only temporary, I don't want Poland...... You know, as Chancellor of Germany, I have to make sure that every one of my people has a steak to eat and every household has a car. If there were suddenly 50 million more people in Germany, where would I find so many cars and steaks? (To be continued.) )