Chapter 477: Attack on Leningrad
readx;??? On July 21, 1941, a shocking news came from Kiev, Russia. The Germans managed to capture Kiev on this day www.biquge.info the Germans.
The German occupation of Kyiv was expected by high-level people around the world, but what everyone did not expect was that Kyiv would be occupied by the Germans in such a short time.
It was only ten days from the beginning of the movement of the German Southern Group towards the Kiev region and the execution of the encirclement operation. Who would have thought that the Russian army, with its almost a million defenses, would lose in ten days.
700,000 Russian troops were captured, even 700,000 pigs could not be captured alive in ten days.
And with the shocking news that Kyiv was occupied by the Germans, an even more shocking news was revealed.
That is, among the 700,000 Russian soldiers who voluntarily surrendered to Germany, 300,000 Belarusian troops, under the leadership of their commander-in-chief Dudarov, announced that they would formally secede from the Russian Federation on behalf of the Belarusian nation and become an independent kingdom from then on.
And the reason why Dudarov was able to succeed in getting the forgiveness of the Germans was precisely because of the introduction of Putin, the commander-in-chief of the three Ukrainian armies, and it was also Putin's help to match the bridge, that Dudarov in Belarus went to the Russian side to persuade the Russian army of 400,000 troops to surrender to Germany.
For this reason, the Russian generals who surrendered ate Dudarov's hearts were all there, and it was precisely because of Dudarov's demagogy that they surrendered to the Germans. Who knows that the Russian army is a real surrender, and the Belarusian army is a fake surrender.
On the second day of the surrender, the Belarusian army became a friendly force of the Germans and oversaw the Russian Front. How can this make the Russian army that has already surrendered embarrassed?
As an old Chinese saying goes, if you are sold, you are still helping others count the money. However, the Russian army, which has been hanged, is unable to resist even if it wants to. On the day they were hanged, their 400,000-strong army had already begun to be sent to the interior of Europe in batches.
All of a sudden, Ukraine and Belarus seceded from the Russian Federation within a week, like two heavy blows to the world's political leaders.
Everyone seems to be unable to see the pattern of the world clearly. What's going on? Could it be that God will not help the Germans? Could it be that Russia, which seemed to be mighty, was going to fall under the iron hooves of Germany in such a suffocated manner?
With the same announcement of the Belarusian army joining the ranks of the German fighting. The German Army Group South received 600,000 friendly troops for nothing with almost no effort.
The most important thing is that with the cooperation of these 600,000 friendly troops, the 400,000 Russian prisoners in the Kyiv region cannot afford to make any waves. It can be said that they have completely lost hope of survival.
After losing all their weapons, the 400,000 Russian prisoners looked at the 300,000 Ukrainian troops in front of them, and the 300,000 Belarusian troops in the back, surrounded by well-equipped and well-supplied German elite troops. Their 400,000 Russian troops have been wrenched again, and now they are divided into several parts and held separately, even if they want to rebel, they have no chance.
The 400,000 Russian troops have become very confused, and they do not know what fate awaits them in the near future?
As a result, it took only one month for the German Army Group South to achieve its original expected goal, not only successfully occupying the Ukrainian city of Kyiv, but also eliminating millions of Russian troops in the Kyiv area.
Among them, 600,000 Belarusian troops and Ukrainian troops became the new forces of the German servant army, while the remaining 400,000 Russian prisoners were sent to mines all over Europe according to the prior arrangement of the German General Staff, and were responsible for heavy physical work such as mining, opening mountains, repairing bridges, and paving roads.
Due to the fact that the Russian forces near Kyiv were swept away, the entire hundreds of kilometers around Kyiv suddenly became the sphere of influence of the Germans.
At this time, Army Group South, which had a full 1 million men, divided its troops into two routes, all the way south to continue to consolidate the surrounding areas, and at the same time began to move east and south, aiming its forces directly at the Caucasus Mountains and the Black Sea region.
The other part of the army, as originally planned, began to move north to join Army Group Center, preparing to reach the Moscow region by the end of August, and to launch a full-scale offensive against Moscow by the beginning of September at the latest.
Now the whole of Germany is waiting for the good news that Army Group North will succeed in attacking Leningrad, as long as Leningrad can be captured in a short time, the three armies will finally join forces in Moscow.
By then, the total strength of the three armies will reach three million people, and Moscow will not be able to fall in a few days.
In the eyes of the German General Staff, since Kiev, one of the three major targets, had been taken by the Germans, and at the same time there were 600,000 more friendly troops, this would greatly save the forces needed by Army Group South to occupy southern Russia.
At the same time, it also means that more troops can be drawn to attack Moscow.
And with the Ukrainian army led by Putin and the Belarusian army led by Dudarov officially joining the Axis powers, the German staff believed that for the German Northern Bloc, which had the overall strength, it would be even easier to attack and occupy Leningrad within two months.
So when Manstein's report on the cautious approach to the Leningrad offensive was handed over to the German headquarters, the entire General Staff, including Hitler himself, had already been carried away by the victory in Kiev, and they did not take Manstein's report seriously at all.
Hitler gave the order to attack Leningrad before the large forces completely encircled Leningrad, before they had achieved absolute air supremacy, and when they had not yet gained full superiority in the number of various artillery pieces.
So the 700,000 Army Group North, which was not fully ready, began the siege of Leningrad with the help of thousands of aircraft, thousands of tanks, and tens of thousands of artillery pieces.
In the eyes of the German General Staff, such a strong strength against Leningrad, which was defended by only 300,000 regular troops, was it not a manual capture?
But the truth was another shock, and the 700,000 German troops suffered heavy losses, and attacked for a month, until the end of August, only to break through the three defensive trenches outside Leningrad.
What the German staff did not expect was that Leningrad was so strong in combat, they only had 300,000 regular troops, but they still had 500,000 improvised strong men.
These strong men are not the illiterate people who can't read a single big character in China, they are almost all an armed army composed of knowledgeable and literate students, workers, retired soldiers, and socially progressive youth.
You must know that in Leningrad, the center of the Russian Revolution, almost every adult man will participate in military training, and almost every middle school student will participate in military training for half a month once a year.
Coupled with the millions of people in Leningrad who were bent on fighting against Germany, the German vanguard was attacked in all sorts of ways almost as soon as it appeared outside the first line of defense in Leningrad.
What anti-tank guns, mines, cluster grenades, enough to trap a huge trap for a tank. Countless militiamen dressed as ordinary people strapped to mixed explosives launched a surprise attack on the crowd of German troops.
So much so that later the German army did not dare to implement Hitler's policy of tenderness towards the local population, and almost every German soldier marching towards the Leningrad region received an order from the Northern Group Command.
All non-German nationals encountered during the march to Leningrad could be cut first. So Army Group North went all the way and killed all the way, and almost all the villages and peasants on both sides of the road to Leningrad were slaughtered.
The atrocities of Army Group North further aroused the determination of the defenders of Leningrad to resist, so more young people volunteered to join the death squads to make a break with the German army.
So more suicide attacks, more sneak attacks took place around every German army. The endless spinnering by the Russians caused great trouble and casualties to Army Group North.
In this way, when the 700,000 German troops had lost hundreds of tanks and hundreds of planes after countless mines and artillery attacks, and had to sacrifice the lives of more than 100,000 excellent soldiers to finally fill these trenches, the fierce street fighting in Leningrad had just begun.
Because the people of Leningrad are really not afraid of death, and at the same time, Leningrad is also an important Russian military base in the north, and it is also the general logistics base of the Russian Baltic Navy, so Leningrad's ammunition reserves are very sufficient.
In addition, Leningrad's geographical location is extremely special, not only by the mountains and the sea, but also surrounded by many natural barriers that can be used as strategic defense points.
In addition, Comrade Zhukov, who was able to fight well, also came to Leningrad to direct the battle. So the defense index of Leningrad rose in a straight line.
At the same time, since Leningrad is also the last barrier to protect the north of Moscow. Therefore, the street fighting in Leningrad is more than tragic and can be described as fierce.
Almost every day, every house, every street, the Russian defenders had to fight the German army repeatedly, and the artillery and tanks of both sides fought countless life-and-death duels in the narrow streets of the city.
Often, as soon as we destroy one of your tanks, your tanks will also destroy one of our tanks, and in the first ten days of the attack on Leningrad, the German army destroyed 500 tanks by the Russian troops.
The Russian defenders also had nearly 500 tanks destroyed, and both sides lost not only tanks, aircraft, artillery, but also soldiers.
Every day there will be artillery battles, every day there will be tank group battles, every day there will be hundreds of sorties, and every day there will be countless street battles.
From the date of the Battle of Leningrad on 1 August to the end of August, the 700,000 German casualties reached 300,000, and the defenders of Leningrad paid the price of 1 million casualties of soldiers and civilians.
However, Leningrad was still not breached, and the Russian military flag was still standing firmly in front of the Russian positions. When the intelligence of the frustration of the offensive of Army Group North was once again sent to Hitler, Hitler finally couldn't sit still.
"Give me the secret telegram sent by Li Tie a few days ago, and I want to take a good look at it." Hitler commanded.