After a while, one of the captains inside came over and saluted Andrei and said, "General Yakov, the chief of the General Staff, please come in." www.biquge.info"So under the leadership of the captain, Andrei stepped through the gate and walked into the General Staff, and then came to an office, the captain said hello to the officer on duty at the door, and then Vasilevsky's voice came from inside, "It's Andrei who has arrived!" So Andrei hurried in, and there was a lieutenant general in addition to Vasilevsky, who immediately introduced: "This is General Antonov, Deputy Chief of the General Staff. So Andrei hurriedly saluted and said: "Hello, Comrade Deputy Chief of the General Staff! ”

And after the greetings, the two of them sat Andrei down, and Antonov asked directly: "Andrey, at the beginning, you thought that the prospects for the Kharkov counterattack were probably not very optimistic, and suggested that the plan be revised?" What do you think is the reason for this now? ”

Andrei replied: "Comrade Deputy Chief of Staff, with all due respect, did many of us think too optimistically about the situation at the beginning? Everyone is unanimously optimistic. The Germans have been beaten to the ground after our winter counteroffensive, and as long as we continue to attack, they will escape all the way across the Dnieper, and a counter-assault is simply impossible. ”

Andrei originally thought that these words would cause Antonov's displeasure, but after listening to it, he nodded unexpectedly, and asked rhetorically: "Yes, judging from the situation of the enemy and us at that time, it was just like what you just said." The morale of the German units in Ukraine was extremely low, and their collapse was inevitable under the powerful blows of our two fronts. Didn't you think that was the case at the time? ”

"Yes, Comrade Deputy Chief of the General Staff, although Manstein is our enemy, I consider him to be a good commander, and the troops under his command cannot be so vulnerable. According to the confessions and interrogations of the captured prisoners by our Ministry of Internal Affairs, they received orders from their superiors that when they were attacked by our troops, except for a small part of the troops left to entangle with our troops, the rest of the troops and technical equipment quickly left the battlefield and moved to the rear, and I knew from that time that the situation was not good.

I suspect that Manstein is doing this in a huge conspiracy. It should be said that the great retreat of the German troops on the southern front carried out by Manstein himself was aimed at luring our army to go deep alone, away from the cover of logistics bases and airfields. Judging by the position of our army at that time, his purpose has been achieved. ”

Vasilevsky brought a map, as well as a stack of war reports from that time. The two chiefs of staff frowned again and searched the map for the location of each unit at that time. After a while, Antonov pointed to the map and said to Andrei: "Andrey, your original analysis is correct. Since the beginning of the winter counteroffensive, our troops have advanced about 6 to 700 kilometers on the winter roads in the face of heavy snowstorms, and because the roads and bridges along the way have been completely destroyed by the Germans, our army's logistics supply bases and airfields have far from keeping up with the pace of advance of the combat troops. So far, before the German counterattack, after three months of fighting, our troops have not only suffered heavy losses, but also are very short of supplies and necessary air support. In particular, the situation of General Vatutin's Southwestern Front was particularly bad, with only 137 tanks left in the subordinate Popov Rapid Group and the 4th Tank Army, and many of the tanks in the cluster were almost immobile due to the lack of fuel. ”

Antonov said with a sigh: "It's a pity that at that time, although your analysis came to Moscow, it did not attract any attention!" Through the inquiry just now, Antonov fully believes that Andrei does have a deep understanding and thinking about the battle situation, and it seems that the same as the original analysis comes from his intuition, although many people are summarizing the defeat after the defeat, but it is all due to logistics and equipment, and Andrei found the problem from the beginning, and then Vasilevsky asked: "Andrey, do you think our army will be able to continue to launch counterattacks in the future?" ”

Then Andrei said: "After a period of replenishment, our army can launch a counterattack!" The main reasons are these aspects: first of all, the devastating blow given to the German army by the Battle of Stalingrad is not something that can be offset by this Kharkov counterattack, you must know that now the huge combat gap between our army and the German army at the beginning has been reduced or even disappeared, although some elite units of the German army are still very strong, but on the whole, from the analysis of troops, technical equipment, personnel quality and other aspects, our army has begun to occupy an advantage, and the war has never only looked at one aspect, but also a contest of the overall will of the country. Our country has fully entered the state of war mobilization since the beginning of 41, and the Germans have not mobilized now, the next war situation can be confirmed that the overall strength of the Germans can not withstand the consumption of such a scale in Stalingrad, and although our army failed in this battle, but there is a saying that the enemy was killed 3,000 and lost 800, this time the heroic operation of our army still caused a lot of losses to the German army, especially the elite troops of the Germans need to be replenished, and as far as I know, due to Comrade Stalin's amnesty, The Germans now do not trust the Vostok battalion, their forces on the front are already insufficient, so in the second half of this year, our army is fully capable of striking another hard blow to the Germans! ”

And Antonov asked: "So next, where do you think the battlefield should be placed?" "Andrei came to the front of the map and laid down his hand in the salient of Kursk!