Advance! Advance!

Stalin's determination soon turned into the actions of millions of GCIST fighters on the Soviet-German battlefield!

In the night of April 13, brigades of troops rolled forward on a muddy field. The sound of people shouting horses neighing and the roaring of motors www.biquge.info the pen and the fun pavilion. On the vast plains of the Tula, Oryol and Lipetsk regions, southwest of Moscow. Several large armies carrying a large amount of baggage were desperately approaching Moscow, the great capital of the Soviet Union. These units, which approached Moscow from the southwest, belonged to the former Orel Front, and now the Reserve Front. They were commanded by Marshal Konev, who had been transferred from the Crimean peninsula not so long ago.

Unlike the Central Front, which was concentrated in Moscow, the Oryol Front (Reserve Front), originally deployed in Tula, Oryol, and Lipetsk regions, was only a smaller, lighter-equipped "small front" with only three army groups, but it was quite elite. They are the 1st Guards Army (including the 4th and 6th Guards Armies, the 18th Tank Army and the 153rd Infantry Division), the 2nd Guards Army (including the 1st and 3rd Guards Infantry Corps and the 2nd Guards Mechanized Army) and the 1st Red Banner Army (including the 22nd Infantry Army, the 26th Infantry Army, the 10th International Column Division, the 88th Independent Infantry Division, and the 77th and 79th Tank Destroyer Brigades) transferred from the Far East.

According to the original plan, the task of the Orel Front was not to hold the three oblasts of Orel, Tula and Lipetsk, but to carry out peripheral movement operations after the start of the campaign to defend Moscow in order to relieve pressure on Moscow. When conditions are ripe, the Orel Front will also engage in counteroffensive operations to relieve Moscow.

Now, by order of the Supreme High Command, this large army, renamed the Reserve Front, will join the battle for the defense of Moscow.

And the Moscow battlefield will also bring together a huge Red Army of nearly 3 million people to fight to the death with the invading coalition forces with the German army as the core!

At the same time that the main forces of the entire reserve front were divided into three routes, approaching Moscow from Orel, Tula, Lipetsk and other places. On the railway from Moscow to Kalinin, there are also military vehicles loaded with JS-2 tanks, T-38/85 tanks, SU-85 tanks and other heavy equipment.

The 4 Heavy Guards Tank Army, the largest trump card in the hands of the Central Front, is now being transported by train to the battlefield of the counterattack on the Northern Front.

By order of the Supreme High Command and the Command of the Central Front, from the night of the 14th, the Red Army will launch the most fierce offensive on the front lines of Kuvshinovo, Torzhok, Likuslavl!

And farther north, near Vadell on the territory of Novgorod Oblast, the main forces of the 7th Guards Tank Army of the Red Army, which had made a detour north from the west of Kalinin, had by this time overcome the muddy roads and the air raids launched by the Luftwaffe during the day, and had made a detour to its position as quickly as possible. On the night of 13 April, their vanguard, the 18th Guards Tank Brigade, led by a detachment of "Red Germans" who had infiltrated behind enemy lines, occupied the town of Wuyi on the Red October railway line.

On the same night, General Paulus, who already knew that he was going to be "surrounded" (in fact, it was not completely surrounded, there was still a northward route to the east of the Red October Railway, which Zhukov had deliberately left behind for Paulus's group to flee for his life), set up an iron barrel array in his headquarters in Verkhniy Cholok for the Soviet siege.

"Sir, the Soviets occupied the town of May Day, and the railway line to Petrograd was cut off. The 8th Panzergrenadier Division of the Belarusian Army was besieged in Vadère, near the Red October railway line, and the battle had been going on for 4 hours. In addition, the fighting for Andrey Pohl is still raging. Now the command of Army Group North asks: Do we need to dispatch the 5th Panzer Army to relieve the siege for us and reopen the Red October railway line? ”

The chief of staff of the 6th Panzer Army, Lieutenant General Schmidt, stood in front of Paulus with a look of excitement on his face. The plan to use the 6th Panzer Army, the 1st White Russian Army, the Polish Corps, and the 1st French Mechanized Army as bait to lure the Soviet troops from the west of Kalinin to besiege was actually the first thing he proposed.

Judging from the current situation, it seems to have been a complete success! As long as the 5th Panzer Army under the command of General Tiperski (consisting of 1 German Panzer Division, 2 French Reserve Panzer Divisions, 1 Hungarian Panzer Division, and 4 German Panzergrenadier Divisions) was involved, a big victory would be within reach, and it would not affect the pace of Army Group North's attack on Moscow. Although the Marshal of the Hesman Empire had already spoken and handed over Moscow to Army Group North, many of the generals of Army Group North, including Moder, were still a little uneasy......

Paulus just glanced at his chief of staff, turned his head and asked Marshal Capper, the commander of the 1st White Russian Army, who was lying on the map: "Has anything changed on the front of Likuslavl?" ”

Likuslavl is located about 40 km north of the city of Kalinin and also along the Red October Railway. It was the base for the advance of the allied forces to attack Moscow in the south, and after it was occupied by Paulus's 6th Panzer Army in the fall of '43, it was "fortified" and turned into a fortified fortified area. Currently holding out there is the White Russian Empress Guard, an elite mechanized infantry corps of Cossack warriors, armed with a large number of "Olga hammers" and very strong anti-armor combat capabilities.

Marshal Cappele looked a little tired, he was 62 years old this year, and like most of the old "old white men", he had a bad habit of drinking, so his health was not good, and his energy seemed to be a little unable to keep up with the high-intensity command of operations for days.

Marshal Cappel smiled: "The front of Likuslavl is stable, the performance of the 'Olga' tank destroyer is even better than expected, and the 'Stalin' tank is not an opponent at all. ”

A tank destroyer assembled from the body of a T-50 tank and a British 6-pounder gun actually overturned many behemoth-like JS-2 heavy tanks, a result that no one expected.

Thus, Likuslavl, which was supposed to be occupied by the Soviets in the original plan, is now in the hands of the White Army, impregnable.

"Give up Likuslavl tomorrow morning," Paulus said lightly. "Tomorrow at noon to give up Torzhok, in the afternoon to give up Kuvshinovo. Shrink the forces to the triangle between Verkhniy Volochok, Udomlya and Bologoye. ”

……

"Likuslavl has been taken!"

"Ulla! Ulla! ”

The sound of cheers immediately resounded in the General Staff of the Red Army (where the headquarters of the Central Front was located). Zhukov, who had stayed up all night before, went home to rest after getting the news of the liberation of Wuyi Town last night. Sitting in command of the headquarters was General Rokossovsky, who was a very energetic general, and after staying up for several nights, he still did not have a tired look on his face, and his mind remained clear and calm enough.

Hearing the cheers of the staff officers, he just said to himself: "The Kalinin counterattack has actually been won......"

He was right, the capture of the fortified zone of Likuslavl would mean that the defensive zone north of Moscow would have increased by tens of kilometers in depth. Moreover, the fortifications around Likuslavl could also be used by the Soviet army, as long as a group-level battle group armed with a sufficient number of SU-57 tank destroyers, ZIS-2 anti-tank guns, ZIS-3 cannons and A-19 cannons (122mm) was placed there, and the Germans would not necessarily be able to break through for several weeks.

"Go and call Marshal Zhukov," Rokossovsky instructed, "tell him the good news about the recovery of Likuslavl." ”

Zhukov, having received the good news, immediately rushed to the underground command center of the General Staff from his underground residence on the "Moscow Metro Line 2".

Within the General Staff, he had not yet begun to inquire about the situation on the Likuslavl front, when another piece of good news came.

"The French army is evacuating Torzhok!"

"Ulla!"

The underground command center of the General Staff was again jubilant. Torzhok and Likuslavl are twenty or thirty kilometers apart, and they are also a fortified zone - the two fortified strips are actually connected together and are called: the Torzhok-Likuslavl fortified zone.

Now that the Soviets have taken this key fortified area, they only need to put on two armies, and it will be difficult for the German Army Group North to break through in the short term.

"How's Andrea Pol doing?" Zhukov suddenly asked a somewhat disheartening question.

"Comrade Chief of the General Staff, Andrea Poel is still in the hands of the Germans, the terrain there is not conducive to the offensive, and it is the elite German paratroopers who are guarding it......"

"Gotta take it down!" Zhukov said in a firm tone, "Andrea Pol must be taken resolutely...... Only by taking Andrea Pol will it be possible for the roundabout cluster to really consolidate its positions near the town of May Day and Valdai, otherwise the roundabout 7th Guards Tank Army will be alone in the depths, and the blocking of the German (coalition) flank will also be false. ”

"Comrade Chief of the General Staff...... General Rokossovsky seemed to have a different point of view, and he said to Zhukov that "Andrea Poll is not important, the town of May Day and Valdai are not critical, the fortified strip of Torzhok-Likuslavl is the most important." ”

In fact, he meant to take it as soon as it was good, and after taking the fortified defensive zone of Torzhok-Likuslavl, he would go on the defensive.

Zhukov glanced at him, just shook his head and said: "The decisive battle has already started in advance, Comrade General Secretary has made up his mind, we must do our best to launch a counterattack operation before April 30, and we should aim to inflict heavy damage on the main force of the German Army Group North!" ”