readx;?“ Comrade Pavlov, Comrade Shaposhnikov, what do you think of Comrade Kulik's proposal? ”

In the Kremlin, the great leader Stalin stood by a huge sand table with a pipe in his mouth, and when he asked questions, he spoke softly, as if he was in a good mood. The actions of www.biquge.info the Germans this time seemed to have been expected by Stalin and the Red Army High Command. It seems that no matter how cunning the German fox is, it will not be able to fight the GC hunters in the end.

"Comrade General Secretary," said Marshal Pavlov, First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense, "the opinion put forward by Comrade Kulik must be taken seriously, and I propose to strengthen the defense of the middle reaches of the Dnieper, that the 9th and 12th armies can be mobilized to Chernihiv for defense, and that the defensive line can be arranged along the Dnieper-Desna River (a tributary of the Dnieper, in an east-west direction) to cover the right flank of the Southwestern Front......"

"Wait," Stalin interrupted Pavlov, "can we only go on defense?" ”

Pavlov and Shaposhnikov looked at each other, and of course they had been prepared for Stalin's question.

Pavlov said: "Comrade General Secretary, what I just said is only one plan, and we have prepared another one. ”

In fact, the breakthrough of the German troops on the Pripyat River had long been expected by the High Command of the Red Army. And long before the start of the German offensive, a plan for dealing with it was prepared.

"Another option is to have a decisive battle with the Germans in the Bryansk and Chernihiv regions."

"It was planned to form the Bryansk-Chernihiv Front, using the tactics of luring the enemy into depth, followed by a head-on attack, to deal a heavy blow to the mechanized clusters of German troops crossing the Dnieper," Shaposhnikov said. ”

"Well, well, that's good." Stalin nodded repeatedly, "We now have weapons that can fight the Tiger tank, so we shouldn't be passive everywhere." ”

"However, this plan will further weaken the Western Front and the Reserve Front." Pavlov reminded with a frown.

The formation of the Bryansk-Chernihiv Front was, of course, based on the premise that the Germans wanted to outflank the Southwestern Front from the north -- that is, the main direction of the German offensive was in Ukraine.

If the goal of the Germans was Moscow, then the Germans breaking through from the Pripyat River were not the main forces. And after the breakthrough, they will definitely go north to attack Smolensk. In this way, the Red Army was supposed to reinforce the Western Front, the Reserve Front and the Kalinin Front, and engage the Germans in the area of Smolensk and Pskov.

Stalin smoked his pipe, fell into deep thought, and after a while he said: "Then let's form the Bryansk Front first...... At the same time, the 9th and 12th armies went to Chernihiv to set up defenses. ”

He took a compromise. The Bryansk region is located south of Smolensk region, just over 300 kilometers from Minsk. In the event of a large-scale offensive by the Germans in the center, then the Bryansk Front could at any time join the Western Front or the Reserve Front. If the main German attack was on the southern route, then the Bryansk Front would be able to attack the Germans who were making a detour from the north of the Southwestern Front.

However, Stalin ignored the reality that after air supremacy was completely controlled by Germany, the large-scale mobilization of the Soviet Red Army was already very inconvenient.

Stalin said: "The Bryansk Front should include the 38th, 40th, 48th armies and the 1st and 2nd tank armies. In addition, it is attached to an air force group army and a number of independent artillery and tank units. ”

He sent 5 army groups to the Bryansk Front, 2 of which were powerful tank armies, drawn from the Reserve Front and the Kalinin Front.

At this time, the Soviet Union had a total of 5 tank armies and 5 assault armies, all of which were the most elite mechanized/motorized units.

Among them, the 1st and 4th tank armies and the 5th assault armies belonged to the Kalinin Front under the command of Zhukov and were the main forces in relieving the siege of Leningrad.

The 2nd Tank Army belonged to the Reserve Front, the 5th Tank Army belonged to the Western Front, and the 3rd Tank Army belonged to the Southwestern Front.

Now after Stalin assigned the 1st Tank Army and the 2nd Tank Army to the Bryansk Front, the Reserve Front was left without armored corps of army group size, and the Kalinin Front was significantly weakened.

"Comrade General Secretary, the Kalinin Front needs powerful armored clusters......" Pavlov reminded in a whisper.

Stalin paused and said: "Isn't Zhukov preparing a surprise attack on Velikiye Luki through the forest belt of Kalinin?" I know the terrain there, there are woods everywhere, there are almost no ready-made roads, and it is simply impossible for 2 tank armies to pass quickly. Therefore, the key to the success of the operation is suddenness, as long as the Germans are taken by surprise, the Battle of Velikiye Luki can be won. As long as we capture Velikiye Luki, we will be able to transfer the tank army from Smolensk or Bryansk to Zhukov by rail. If you don't think it's safe, then give Zhukov a few more tank destroyer brigades. ”

The tank destroyer brigades of the Soviet Union are now the product of an emergency, just like the Su-122 assault guns and Su-85 tank destroyers they have. A tank destroyer brigade has 2 tank destroyer battalions, each with a light tank company (15 T-60 tanks to cover assault guns and tank destroyers), a tank destroyer company (10 Tu-85 tank destroyers), and an assault gun company (6 Tu-122 assault guns).

Although such a tank destroyer brigade also has a lot of armored forces, it is not a unit used for the main attack because it does not have such tanks that can withstand the enemy's anti-tank fire. It can only be used to cooperate with tank troops in attack, or simply for defense. So after Stalin transferred the 1st Tank Army from Smolensk, the assault capabilities of the Kalinin Front were severely discounted.

At the same time, Stalin's decision also made the 1st Tank Army and the 2nd Tank Army, two powerful mechanized clusters with a total of 10 tank/mechanized corps, a spectator of Armageddon for a long time.

And at the same time that Stalin made this decision, which was later considered very wrong, some partisans operating in the territory of the Pskov region had already discovered the symbol of the main force of the German armored cluster - the Tiger tank!

After filling her belly with German chocolate, French baguettes (given by French artillery) and a small piece of delicious Russian sausage (given by an old white man), Zoya finally found her team in a dense forest at about 10 o'clock in the evening of April 30.

"What?" The partisan leader, Second Lieutenant Sprosky, was obviously a little surprised by what Zoya had reported, "There are 2 battalions of heavy tanks? Zoya, you're not mistaken, are you? ”

"Comrade Second Lieutenant," Zoya said with great certainty, "I'm 100 percent sure that those are Tiger tanks, there are 88 of them." There were also 44 No. 4 tanks, the kind with short barrels.

In addition, I saw many trucks, half-tracks, or horse-drawn cannons, and many white cavalry, all of which had descended south from Veliko Luki. I think they went to attack Smolensk. ”

"Well," Second Lieutenant Sprosky nodded, "I'll report your findings right away, if your findings are confirmed." Now you can rest early, and tomorrow you will continue to scout on the highway (ask for food). ”

Although Second Lieutenant Sprosky said that he would report "immediately", he had no horse to get on and had to send two partisans on foot through the forest to find the higher organizations, which only had radio stations, and although the American tyrants rented many radio stations to the Soviet Union, radio stations were still very rare in the guerrillas behind enemy lines. Therefore, this important discovery was not transmitted to the Supreme High Command of the Red Army in time.

The units of the Soviet Red Army, which were fighting the Germans on the Velykaya River, did not find any Tiger tanks in the battle on April 30, and in fact they did not even see a few ordinary No. 4H tanks.

Because the Germans did not throw in panzer divisions to break through the Soviet defenses, but concentrated on using a large number of artillery to cover the Panzergrenadiers and infantry to break through.

Captain Solzhenitsyn, the commander of the artillery reconnaissance company who had seen the Germans break through the defensive line for most of the day, had been in the rain of German artillery shells on the Velykaya River front, and had withdrawn to the rear of the battle line by this time, and was reporting to Colonel Zakharov, the head of artillery of the 4th Infantry Army, what he had seen at the front.

"The Germans were very heavy with artillery fire, and they should have put in a lot of heavy cannons and howitzers of the 170mm-210mm class, and a lot of rocket artillery was put in, and the fire was very fierce."

Solzhenitsyn, who had smelled the smoke of gunfire for most of the day, looked a little sluggish, and today twenty or thirty of his men were bombarded by German/French artillery as revolutionary martyrs, and he himself was almost martyred for the cause of GCISM (he was, of course, a member of the Bolshevik Party). He was still terrified of the German artillery fire.

Today the anti-artillery bunker where he is hiding can carry up to 150mm shells, and the Germans directly pulled out a lot of 170-210mm heavy guns, and with just one shot, the bunker will become a grave!

"Tell me about the tanks of the Germans, do you see anything new?" The head of artillery, Colonel Zakharov, again asked about the situation with German tanks. In fact, the task of the 4th Infantry Army now was not to hold the line of the Velikaya River, but to delay the German offensive, and at the same time to probe the reality of the German army, and it would be better to find out what powerful new tanks the Germans had.

"A new assault gun has been discovered," Solzhenitsyn smoked a cigarette as he recounted the terrible weapons he had encountered on the front line, "it had a short-barreled 150mm cannon that posed a great threat to our front-line positions, and it was really ......" (to be continued. )