Late at night, the Allied North Route Operational Cluster Headquarters in Olsztyn was still brightly lit. The daytime reports from the front-line troops were enough to make the Allied generals and staff officers anxious, and the night battle did not stop at all, and a large number of Soviet troops launched a ferocious offensive near Baranovichi, southwest of Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Judging from the operational map, this is equivalent to inserting a knife in the steepest part of the arc curve of the Allied northern front cluster to support friendly forces in the south, so that the 3rd Army of the United States is in a situation where it cannot take care of both the beginning and the end, and the flank of the French 2nd Army, which is fighting southward, is also greatly threatened.

While the Allied generals were arguing fiercely about whether to continue south or to stabilize their positions first, an American staff officer came in and reported to Bradley: "Sir, General Ridgway has arrived!" ”

During World War II, the U.S. Army and Navy had a number of brilliant generals with outstanding achievements. Bunker. Ridgway was also a well-known one, and this time he arrived overnight from Danzig, two hundred kilometers away. It was also during this turbulent period that the Allied General Command in Europe moved from Bremen, Germany, to Gdansk, a port in northern Poland, closer to the battlefield, known to the Germans as Danzig. The city has always been one of the most talked-about areas of European political, military and diplomatic history, and for more than 600 years it has been the main focus of repeated contention between the German and Polish peoples. In 199, Germany's demand for the recovery of Danzig and the Danzig Corridor created the world's attention to the "Danzig Crisis" and became the main trigger of World War II, and the first cannon fire of the European war was fired from German battleships anchored in Danzig Bay.

Hearing that the General Headquarters had sent a figure at the level of deputy chief of staff to come, the generals in the room immediately stopped talking, only to see this bald middle-aged man striding into the command room, and the accompanying adjutant was carrying a large black briefcase.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have a new order for you to attack!" Li Qi said with a slight sigh, and instantly answered the speculation of the people in this room.

The adjutant quickly took out a sealed brown paper bag from his briefcase, which Ridgway personally handed over to Bradley. Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Bradley expertly unpacked and retrieved the paper—a combination of printed, handwritten, and marked maps, stacked on top of each other to be two centimeters thick. After looking at the top piece of paper, Bradley passed it to his staff officer, and the American colonel hurriedly glanced at it, not daring to delay, and passed it to the British general Cullen.

At this time, Bradley spread the folded map sandwiched in the document on the table with one hand, and said to the Allied soldiers present in an open and honest manner: "The General Command has decided to launch a powerful offensive on the northern front in order to break up the momentum of the Soviet counteroffensive against our troops on the southern front. ”

Without waiting for the others to speak, Cullen also said in his unpopular high-pitched voice, "Aha, fight back, we really need a strong counterattack right now!" As long as the counterattack is effective, it will be easy to disrupt the deployment of the Soviet army and relieve the siege of the troops on the southern front, and it will be possible to open up the situation in one fell swoop! ”

"General Karen, don't be too happy too soon!" "Since the Soviets have spent a long time preparing for this counteroffensive, they should also anticipate all kinds of situations, and it will be very difficult for us to counterattack, and in the next few weeks, we may suffer the heaviest losses since the beginning of the war," Ridgway reminded. ”

The French did not speak, but put on their glasses and carefully studied the battle orders sent from the General Headquarters, and the Poles, who entered the war with the smallest army, the worst equipped and the weakest in combat, and which, in their own words, had not yet returned to the level of pre-1939. When Bradley said that, only the British general responded solemnly: "To be honest, Britain has not fought a few beautiful land battles since the beginning of the 20th century, and although our British Army does not wear the halo of honor like the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, we do not lack combat ability or the courage and determination to shed blood and sacrifice." Although this is not a war to defend the British mainland, we know that today's efforts are for the safety of our families in the future. Look! We're going to give the Russians a taste of it! ”

Bradley buried his head in studying the operational map, and Ridgway did not squeak, the American general who had served as a staff officer in the Army General Staff for a long time before the war, and later organized the 82nd Infantry Division to be reorganized into an airborne division and served as the commander of the airborne division and the commander of the airborne army, looked around, and did not even let go of the corner, and after being sure that the special figure was not here, he asked Bradley in a low voice: "What about the German adviser who gave you battlefield guidance?" ”…,

Bradley reluctantly approached him and replied, "Here, our allies call him a Nazi marshal, and we reject him so much that we have to arrange for him to wait here with his assistants, and to take him back at any time if you need him." ”

"Alas!" Li Qiwei put on the same helpless gesture, "If the atmosphere of the General Headquarters could accommodate him, we would not have sent him here." Regardless, his intuitive insight is very commendable. ”

Bradley said: "The centuries-old grievances between European countries are not something that we can solve by sitting down, or we will find another conference room to talk to him alone later, and see what he thinks of our operation, what do you think?" ”

Li Qiwei smiled reluctantly: "You are the commander, of course it is up to you." It's not too late for us ・・・・・・ to go back tomorrow morning. ”

Bradley seemed accustomed to this, and he calmly studied the battle plan of the General Headquarters with the allied generals, and the established purpose and route of the battle were clearly reflected in the documents and maps sent this time. At present, the battle cluster on the northern front is basically divided into two, half of the troops are going south with the intention of breaking the encirclement of the Soviet army, and half of the troops are sticking to the existing occupied areas in preparation for the Soviet counterattack, and the offensive planned by the general headquarters also takes this deployment into account, so it only requires the northern front cluster to allocate one-third of its forces to launch a fierce attack on Minsk, and it is naturally not easy for the 200,000 Allied troops to capture the Belarusian capital heavily defended by the Soviet army. The two elite units of the French 5th Army have boarded ships and are ready to cooperate with the troops of the Northern Front to fight a rapid offensive in the Gulf of Riga in great depth and directly threaten the hinterland of the Soviet army; In northeastern Poland, the last unavailable armoured group of the Allied Command in Europe, consisting of 3 American armoured divisions, 1 French armoured division, and 1 British armoured brigade, with the cooperation of 6 American infantry divisions and 3 French infantry divisions, could be transported by rail to the front line of the northern front combat cluster in a very short time via the repaired Lithuanian railway line; The last and most powerful move is a massive airborne landing. Scheduled to participate in the war are the famous U.S. 18th Airborne Army, this European powerhouse with the 82nd Airborne Division, 01st Airborne Division as the team, has a large number of veterans who participated in the Normandy landings, Market Gardens and other airborne operations in World War II, as well as the British are proud of the 1st Airborne Division, this elite unit also participated in the Market Garden operation, although it was a failed operation, but still allowed the Allied officers and soldiers to accumulate very valuable airborne combat experience, this time their target is North Minsk between Belarus, the "crossroads" between Russia and Latvia.

After studying and discussing with the Allied generals and making a preliminary clarification of the combat missions of their respective units, Bradley and Ridgway left the command room silently, seeing that it was a little late, they first went to the rest area to smoke a cigarette, and asked the adjutant to go upstairs to greet Manstein, who might have been asleep. After smoking cigarettes, the two went to the small conference room on the third floor of the hotel, where the adjutant displayed an ordinary combat map on the table, and placed a few colored pencils next to it.

While waiting for Manstein, Bradley quickly marked the main route of the offensive on the map. In the eyes of a professional staff officer, the lines he drew were not aesthetically pleasing, but at least they were marked in the right places, and looking at them would bring back the main points.

A few moments later, Manstein and his assistant appeared at the door of the small conference room, they were well-dressed and sober, but they could still tell from their unfit hair that they had fallen asleep. Manstein was not angry at this kind of rash "disturbance", he had already met Ridgway at the Allied Command before, and he had guessed the situation by looking at the atmosphere.

After showing Manstein the map, Bradley said very simply: "We will launch an offensive in two days, striving to seize strategic points in Latvia and Northern Belarus, threatening the deep supply lines of the Soviet forces fighting in Ukraine and Croatia, forming a large encirclement outside the encirclement." ”

Judging from the map, this is really the posture of the Soviet army encircling the Allied troops on the southern front and the Allied forces encircling the Soviet counteroffensive forces, but the great encirclement Bradley mentioned is not complete, the Soviet army is still able to maintain land contact with the Russian hinterland through the railway line in northeastern Ukraine, and Turkey has maintained a consistent cautious attitude on the issue of port transfer and navigation of the Dardanelles, which also makes the presence of the Allied forces in the Black Sea limited to a limited scale of long-range reconnaissance and bombing, which is not enough to threaten the Soviet army's Black Sea route. Manstein looked at the map quietly, from the three-way advance in 1941 to the stalemate in 1942-1943 to the total defeat in 1944, the German and Soviet armies were entangled in Eastern Europe for four years, and all kinds of battlefield situations have passed over again. …,

After the German marshal pondered for a long time, Bradley asked again: "Do you think the Soviet command could have anticipated our offensive?" ”

Manstein shook his head, and just when the American generals felt a little relaxed, he spoke in German, and then his assistant translated: "The counterattack is too small, the relative combat area is too large, and there are too many targets, even if it can surprise the Soviet army in the early stage, the effect will be weakened in the later stage due to the dispersion of troops, don't forget that there are still a large number of strategic reserves in the rear of the Soviet army that can be used!" ”

Bradley and Ridgie looked at each other slightly, and their already unoptimistic mood suddenly dimmed. Next, Li Qiwei spoke: "In your opinion, can our offensive solve the southern front?" ”

"Difficult!" In front of the two American generals, Manstein spoke much more bluntly, and then he replied in a large way: "The Soviets have tasted the sweetness of the war of annihilation in the war with our Germany, and they will do whatever it takes to consolidate the encirclement and exert pressure inward until the besieged forces collapse and surrender." If you want to save your troops on the Southern Front, you'd better throw all your airborne and armored forces into the most critical battlefield - it should be in Western Ukraine, not Northern Belarus! ”

Hearing these words, Li Qiwei asked unwillingly: "According to your understanding, our operation was completely wrong?" ”

Manstein shook his head: "Everyone has their own combat mentality, if I were a commander, I would do it according to my own ideas, and now I am just an informal adviser, a person who makes suggestions, and that's it." ”

If he followed the advice of the marshal of a defeated country and drastically adjusted or even canceled the offensive, Bradley felt that he would be attacked by his allies and unable to explain it to his superiors, so he had to bite the bullet and say: "In that case, Marshal Manstein, on the premise that we have confirmed the launch of this offensive, you should analyze from the perspective of a military adviser what kind of mentality and method the Soviet army will respond to, and tell us what aspects we should prepare for in advance." ”

It sounds somewhat ironic that the victor can't wait for the loser to provide a reference for the battle, and Manstein obviously feels the same way, and he stares at Bradley for a moment with a rather meaningful look, and says in a boxed manner: "First, their tank units are good at rapid maneuvering operations in great depth, and artillery and aviation can provide tacit cooperation and cover, especially in the territory they are familiar with, so large-scale landing and airborne operations may encounter unprecedented trouble."

Second, they have developed a set of skilled and effective techniques for positional defense and urban defense, and based on national characteristics, this defense becomes stronger the further north it goes, and it may not be possible to achieve a breakthrough in a short period of time by relying only on heavy bombing, artillery bombardment, and heavy military input. Third, they have and know how to make use of the vast territory, and large-scale movement warfare greatly increases the chances of forming a war of encirclement and annihilation......"

A quarter of an hour later, when Manstein's aides had finally laid out in English what the marshal had intended to say, the two American generals frowned and fell into deep thought, and their lieutenants quickly perfected the notes on paper.

"These sound contradictory, but they are indeed the characteristics of the Soviet army in previous battles and battles, if we want to get a more detailed reference, we are afraid that we have to let Field Marshal Manstein have been involved in our operational command operations, but ......" Bradley looked at Ridgway in embarrassment, although the United States accounted for two-thirds of the strength composition of the Allied forces in Europe this time, but we could not ignore the British and The values of France and Poland's allies, as well as their national pride, were impossible to exclude their generals from the command structure, and if Manstein insisted on taking command of them, it would be difficult for the ears to be at peace for a moment.

Ridgley shrugged his shoulders slightly and leaned over to Bradley to whisper a few words, only to see Bradley's brows slightly furrowed, and he nodded helplessly: "It seems that this is the only way." ”

Though fate was not in his own hands, Manstein seemed uninterested in their whispered conversation, glanced at the map on the table, stretched his hands and neck slightly, and turned his back to yawn.

Knowing that Manstein had no way to get the news out of here, Bradley then confessed to him: "The offensive began early in the morning after tomorrow, and we hope that this lightning attack will surprise the Soviets, so as to get the key points before they form a stubborn defensive line, and the airborne landing and landing operations are scheduled for the evening of the day after tomorrow and the early morning of the day after tomorrow respectively, and the main combat operation is expected to be completed within a week." ”…,

Manstein only glanced at him and made no comment.

Bradley had no choice but to add: "Early tomorrow morning, I will ask the adjutant to send the draft of the battle plan to your room, and install a direct line telephone in your place, you can contact me at the first time if you have any ideas, and when the cooperation is over, I will objectively report your actions to the superiors, I heard that the high-level has made a heavy promise to you, I don't know what it is, but I believe that these should be related to your contribution to this war." Finally, I sincerely apologize for disturbing your rest! ”

For this "apology", Manstein squeezed out an indifferent wry smile on his face, what kind of figure do you pay attention to when you send people under the fence? He exchanged military salutes with Bradley, Ridgway, and their lieutenants according to their ranks, and then left briskly with his assistants.

On the eve of a major attack, bystanders can sleep as if nothing had happened, but it is not so easy for such parties as Bradley and Ridgway, who return to the noisy command room like a vegetable market, and the generals of the allied countries are constantly making new discoveries in the process of studying the battle plan, which are related to the personal way of thinking and are closely related to the interests of their respective countries -- the army is not their own after all, and too dangerous routes, too difficult tasks, and too strong opponents should be avoided as much as possible. The Poles and the French, in particular, have such a mentality. Bradley, who had no choice but to send them early to convey clear and resolute operational instructions to their respective units, and the artillery groups of all corps, corps, and divisions also began to prepare for a large-scale artillery bombardment. Although all units are at or near the predetermined starting point of the attack, and the mentality and equipment of the officers and men have already entered the stage of fierce battle, such a time limit for preparation is still too hasty. In addition, the Allied side was actively preparing for the offensive, and the Soviets were not idle, and the 5th Army cut diagonally into Lithuania from eastern Latvia, and pointed its troops directly at the northern Lithuanian city of Siauliai, which the Allies had captured two weeks earlier. The city is the fourth largest city in Lithuania, one of the industrial, trade, transportation and cultural centers of Lithuania, it has developed transportation, and has built the largest airport in Lithuania, which can be said to be the strategic fulcrum of northern Lithuania. Once the Soviets occupy this place, it will be like a sharp thorn piercing the throat of the Allied North Road combat cluster, which may not be fatal but will definitely make the Allied forces miserable. (To be continued)