Chapter 999: The German Red Brigades

Early April is the beginning of the muddy season in Russia, and there are usually 5-7 days of sleet as warm and humid air from the south enters cold Moscow. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoEven when there is no rain or snow, the sky is often overcast. For the Air Force sorties, it is very disadvantageous.

However, the muddy season is also not suitable for attacking, especially with mechanized troops.

"Comrade Zhukov, Comrade Pavlov, can we go on the offensive in the muddy season of April?" Stalin asked, looking at the two marshals he trusted the most.

Zhukov and Pavlov exchanged glances with each other, and then Zhukov replied: "Comrade General Secretary, the Red Army can launch a counterattack at any time. ”

"There are also advantages to launching a counterattack during the muddy season, such as the enemy's surprise, and the muddy season is also unsuitable for the deployment of German armored forces," Pavlov said. ”

"It's even more inappropriate." Zhukov added, "According to the information we have, the Germans have upgraded their tanks over the past six months, turning the Tiger into the main force, and each panzer regiment is equipped with a battalion of Tigers."

At the same time, the Germans were massively armed with another type of E-55 heavy tank, weighing 60-50 tons. This would put the Germans at an even greater disadvantage during the muddy season. ”

Now the main tank of the Soviet Red Army is not the 45-ton JS-2 type, but the 32-ton T-34/85, which inherits the excellent maneuverability of the T-34 tank, with a maximum road speed of 55 roads per hour and an off-road speed of 30 kilometers per hour. It also has wide tracks that allow it to maintain high speeds on muddy ground.

"In addition, we have a large number of BT-7 tanks," Zhukov paused, adding, "and most of the tank brigades transferred from the Far East and Siberia are equipped with relatively light tanks, of which the BT-7 is the most numerous. With a weight of only 13.9 tons, this tank has good maneuverability, a maximum cross-country speed of up to 50 highways / h, and can attack through muddy terrain.

And the firepower of the BT-7 tank is not too weak, it has a 45mm tank gun, which can penetrate 100mm vertically placed homogeneous steel plates at a distance of 51mm at a distance of 51 meters when using armor-piercing shells with excellent performance. Although it was not a threat to the main German tanks, it was enough to deal with the German armored vehicles and infantry. ”

The BT-7 tank fell behind at the outbreak of the Soviet-German war in this space-time, so it was sent to the Far East and Siberia to be used against the Japanese.

However, due to the tightness on the Western Front, most of the troops equipped with BT-7 tanks were transferred to the vicinity of Moscow. And these "chicken ribs" tanks are of little use in normal tank combat, whether it is the E-50, the Tiger or the No. 4H tank, which is not something that the BT-7 can deal with.

But the BT-7 also has its own advantages, that is, it is very suitable for maneuvering in muddy land - it was originally developed to fight in poor road conditions, and the weight of 13.9 tons combined with the wide ground and powerful V-2 diesel engine allow the BT-7 to run fast on muddy soil.

Moreover, there are a lot of BT-7s, and the number of stocks plus equipment troops exceeds 4000 units, which is enough to fight a war of tank attrition.

"But how are we going to deal with the Germans Tiger and E-50?" Stalin was still a little uneasy.

"Mainly with the T-34/85 and JS-2," Zhukov replied, "they will play an important role in breaking through the German front." Rapid tank units equipped with BT-7 tanks will play a role when penetrating behind enemy lines.

In addition, we have created a number of SU-57 tank destroyers using BT tank turf. This tank destroyer should be able to deal with Tiger tanks. ”

The appearance of the SU-57 tank destroyer somewhat resembles the historical German Stalker tank destroyer. Without a turret, a powerful ZIS-2 57mm anti-tank gun was mounted directly on the hull of the BT-5/BT-7 tanks, along with an armored roof on the hull.

The original intention of this weapon was to convert all BT-5/BT-7 into tank destroyers for street fighting in the defense of Moscow.

But now it's a better weapon to use - to fight an exhilarating counter-attack.

In addition, the Soviet infantry anti-tank capability has also improved significantly over the past few months. In addition to the Soviet copycat of the Red Iron Fist-60, the Red Army received tens of thousands of bazooka rocket launchers, an anti-tank weapon developed by the Americans in 1942 that could penetrate vertically placed 130mm thick homogeneous steel plates at a distance of 100 meters. Although the frontal of the Tigers and E-50s did not pose a threat, they were able to deal with the frontal of the No. 4H.

……

"Open the gap with the T-34/85 and JS-2, and then follow up with fast units equipped with BT-7 and SU-57...... This should have forced the German clusters north of the city of Kalinin to retreat. ”

Pavlov, who returned to the General Staff of the Red Army with Zhukov, summoned Shaposhnikov, who was the rector of the Red Army University, Rokossovsky, deputy chief of the General Staff, Govorov, chief of artillery, and Malinovsky, deputy commander of the Central Front (Zhukov was also the commander of the Central Front), to discuss the counterattack to be launched.

Deputy Chief of the General Staff Rokossovsky was also quite confident in the counterattack that would be launched, he pointed to the German attack cluster on the map (Paulus's 6th Panzer Army) and said: "According to reconnaissance, the German army's northern route cluster includes a large number of white bandits, Polish puppet army and French army, not only is the combat effectiveness very problematic, but there is also a great contradiction between the white army and the Polish puppet army, so the Germans have to use the French army to separate their fronts." ”

The Poles and White Russia have always been at odds with each other, and if Pilsudski had not dragged Olga to sign a treaty with Lenin more than 20 years ago, she would have restored the Russian Empire. And the French army is better than the Poles and the Russians. So they were placed among them as a firewall - fighting themselves against the Poles and Russians.

"In addition," Rokossovsky added, "because the Germans gave their flanks to the Poles, the French, and the White Russians, they gave us the opportunity to carry out infiltration operations." ”

"Infiltration?" Zhukov raised his eyebrows, "Use our people to pretend to be the White Army?" ”

Both White and Red Russians are Russians, and there is no difference in appearance and language, so it is easier to be confused.

"No," Rokossovsky shook his head, "pretending to be the Polish puppet army and the German army!" Because the White Army will inevitably be wary of our people, it will not be easy to be confused. But the Poles and Germans would not have been on this defense, but gave us the opportunity to infiltrate. And on our side there were many revolutionaries from Poland and Germany. ”

Rokossovsky is right, now the main forces of the White Army are traitors to the Red Army, what kind of Red Army will they not recognize? Moreover, all of them have been educated by the party for many years, and their vigilance against special agents and counterespionage is high!

In contrast, the Poles and Germans were more paralyzed, after all, they did not encounter a few "red waves" and "red Germans" on the battlefield.

However, "Red Wave" and "Red De" exist!

Long back in the days when the Great Patriotic War was still a world revolution, the Polish Bolshevik Party and the German Bolshevik Party built their respective people's armies with the help of the Soviet Union. Although the number is small, the combat effectiveness is not weak.

In particular, the level of training of the German Red Brigades, which consisted of Germans of the faith GC, was not at all worse than that of the "Guards" of the Soviet Red Army.

Because Rokossovsky himself was a Pole, he was still a proletarian military strategist and revolutionary of the older generation of Poland, and he was in charge of the Polish People's Army, the German Red Brigades, and some other internationalist fighters, so he understood the situation.

"This is a good way," Zhukov patted his face, "we still have a lot of captured German equipment in our hands, there are not a few Tiger tanks, but there are a lot of No. 4 tanks, No. 3 assault guns and various armored vehicles, and there are even more uniforms, guns, and artillery, and we can fully equip the Red Brigade." ”

Although the Germans have not fought a single battle-level defeat in this time and space, they have not won every battle. Especially in a war with such a behemoth as the Soviet Union, setbacks were inevitable.

Therefore, there are also many German-made weapons and equipment that have been captured by the Soviet Union, and now it is not difficult for the Soviet army to use these equipment to create a "German mechanized infantry brigade".

"Tanks and assault guns are not needed," Rokossovsky thought for a moment and said, "if you want to carry out infiltration, it is better to have a company-level battle group...... A reconnaissance company posing as a German army was the most suitable to infiltrate from the Polish puppet army or the White Russian army's front. Then go and destroy the rear areas and lines of communication of the German army, creating conditions for the outflanking of the main forces. ”

Zhukov and Pavlov looked at each other and both smiled. Rokossovsky's method is very good, and it will definitely make the German army's northern road cluster more chaotic - the German army occupied Smolensk last autumn (the Soviet army voluntarily gave up), so now the German army attacking Moscow is divided into two northwestern routes, of which the western road is dominated by the 3rd Panzer Army and the 4th Panzer Army. However, in addition to the German 6th Panzer Army, the North Road German Army also had a large number of White Russian, Polish and French troops, as well as some Hungarian troops, which was already a bit chaotic. If one or two thousand more "Red Germans" infiltrate it, it will definitely add to the chaos.