Chapter 95: Soviet-style blitzkrieg

Spring 1948, Western Ukraine, Lviv region.

Before dawn, darkness enveloped the land, and the open field was full of vigorous breath of life. Soviet officers and soldiers crouched in the staggered trenches, and these young faces were nervous, apprehensive, expectant, but without fear or despair. After a long winter of recuperation, the Soviet army's equipment supply situation has been greatly improved, in addition the intensity of the Allied army's strategic bombing has been greatly weakened, the war situation and international public opinion continue to develop in the direction favorable to the Soviet Union, the confidence and morale of the Soviet military and people have gradually risen, and under the call and encouragement of the military and political leaders, everyone is eager to end this profound suffering experience with a decisive victory.

In the wide border area, with the rise of several red flares, the oppressive silence was broken by rolling thunder. Countless heavy howitzers and rocket launchers made the night sky so brilliant that meteors streaked across the sky, the far end of the horizon turned into a red purgatory, and the earth trembled. Before you know it, the night is fading, the light is creeping down, the artillery fire is still roaring, and a completely different roar comes from the air. From time-tested fighters and strike planes to cutting-edge jet fighters, from light and agile light bombers to physically strong twin-engine bombers, MiGs, Lavokin, Tupolev, Sukhoi, Soviet aviation designers vied with each other to contribute improved and new models with better performance -- under the indiscriminate bombardment of the Allies day and night, and under the destruction of hundreds of thousands of tons of high explosives and incendiary bombs. The Soviet Air Force did not fall as speculated, and this is the best embodiment of the indomitable spirit of the Soviets!

The group of planes flew majestically across the battle line, and the tremor on the ground increased, and the already ready tank swarm drove out of the hidden woods and anti-aircraft shelters, and in the hazy light, the array they formed was vast and endless. The T-3485 remains the backbone of this steel torrent, and it is also the vehicle model that the Soviet military industry has concentrated on producing, and only heavy weapons, dense mine arrays, and air power from the air can stop them in the Allied camp; The ISU-76122 is the main fire support weapon retained by the Soviet armored forces in the confrontation with the Western camp, and the further simplification and large-scale manufacturing of them have allowed them to maintain a high production volume during the most difficult stage of energy supplies. As a result, medium tanks with medium assault guns have become the basic style of the Soviet armored forces in front of them, although compared with various types of tanks and combat vehicles in World War II, it seems very monotonous, but this is undoubtedly very suitable for the existing conditions and tactical style of the Soviet army.

In this era of rapid development of aviation technology and the continuous improvement of the performance of combat vehicles, positional defense and various battles in bad weather conditions have proved that the infantry is still the absolute backbone of the battlefield. When a shrill whistle sounded in the trenches, the fierce game officially began. The infantry moving along the trenches were like streams flowing, but there were no bigger rivers here, and they merged directly into the trenches at the forefront of the battle line, stepping on wooden ladders, erecting frames, and climbing out of the gaps dug by their comrades, and they were presented with a no-man's land 3-5 kilometers wide, full of mines and traps, and although there were tanks and sappers equipped with demining shovels to open the way, this section of the road was still extremely difficult for the Soviet infantry.

The previous winter, the Soviets had recuperated and the Allies were actively adjusting their deployments, and the eastern Polish defensive line had been strengthened and extended south to Slovakia and Hungary, creating a defensive belt that stretched for thousands of kilometers, using mountains, rivers, trenches, and reinforced concrete fortifications to keep the powerful Soviet forces out. From this point of view, the Soviets had to pay a heavy price if they wanted to open a breakthrough in this strong defensive line, but the changes within the Allied forces gave the opponent a golden opportunity, and the German troops who surrendered not only shook the hearts of the Allied troops, but also brought about the deployment of the Allied front, plus the Soviets had previously made contact with a number of German units, and while the Allies were in a hurry to replace the German army with troops from other countries, the Soviets bit the weak point of the defensive line, and also received a response from some German officers and soldiers who intended to leave the Allied camp and go to the Free Empire, such a tough battle has the effect of getting twice the result with half the effort! …,

Directly opposite the Lviv area, the Allies deployed a total of 9 divisions and a number of independent units, of which the German Defense Forces had 14 infantry regiments of more than 40,000 people, originally responsible for guarding about 23 kilometers of defensive line and the corresponding depth system, after the 115th Infantry Regiment defected en masse, the US troops in the same area took over the German defense area, and some troops were transferred from the rear reserve forces to supplement. After the battle began, one and a half divisions of American officers and soldiers suddenly faced a fierce attack by six Soviet divisions and a large number of tank units on this relatively unfamiliar defensive line, and lost the first line of defense in only three hours, and the second line of defense was also declared lost around noon. The American soldiers on the front line were crushed, but the American commanders in the area continued to use three regiments with complete combat strength to monitor the German troops, and the German troops could not move without orders, which directly led to the 50,000 troops not playing any role at the most critical time of the battle, and when the Soviet troops broke through the forward positions, the T-34 tank group carried the infantry and swarmed infantry, and the well-designed defense in depth was useless, and a large number of American troops suffered heavy blows on the way back, Of the 14 German infantry regiments, 9 chose to surrender to the Soviets en masse, and the remaining 5 infantry regiments did not stay on the spot to resist the Soviet attack, but retreated to the rear under the control of the commander. In a single day, the Lviv region became the largest hole in the Allied "steel line", and in the swampy area on the border between Lithuania and Belarus, the Soviet offensive forces, mainly infantry, took advantage of a similar chaotic situation to break through the Allied defenses, and more than 60,000 German officers and soldiers retreated without a fight, leaving the Allied forces completely passive.

At this time, the second post-war elections had begun in Germany, and the focus of attention suddenly shifted from votes to Eastern Europe, and the fierceness of the Soviet offensive and the rapid defeat of the Allies were astonishing. The violence and indulgence of the Soviet troops in the occupied territories of Germany at the end of World War II and in the days immediately after the war still resented and feared the Germans, and they also dismantled a large amount of usable equipment like locusts, leaving German industry even more devastating than the Allied strategic bombing. Therefore, in the eyes of the Germans, the United States, Britain, France, and Poland, these guys who stationed troops in Germany in the name of the victorious countries and ran rampant, were certainly hateful, but they were not as terrible as the Soviets. In the past two years, as long as the Soviet army has won a battle on the battlefield, people in Germany will inevitably be as panicked as Poland and France, lest the Soviet Red Army will not be able to live a hard life in the first place.

Now that the Allies on the battlefield in Eastern Europe seem to be in danger, what should they do? In the end, the only thing you can rely on is your own army!

The defense forces of the defense forces should have taken the protection of the home and the country as their main business, not to mention that they were only used as gunmen by the allies on the Eastern European front. The slogan of "withdraw troops and return to China" was shouted through the media of public opinion, and the German people had no choice but to obey, and the voting continued, and people took advantage of the situation to gather a procession outside the polling place, demanding that the country's military and political leaders withdraw the German troops from the front line and use the "national defense line" in eastern Germany to resist all vicious enemies -- when the defense line was built before, the German people were the main force, but now they need to be repaired and reinforced, and the people can contribute their work without asking for compensation!

With tens of millions of Germans turning their anger into hope, and the Allies still stationed in Germany and able to exert political and economic pressure, the pressure to make a decision fell on President Hof-Hersten and the heads of the Wehrmacht. As the people wished, more than one million German Wehrmacht troops withdrew from the front line to the country, which was tantamount to a drain on the Allied front, and even caused a complete collapse of the war situation against the Soviet Union. At the request of the Allies, reliable generals were dispatched to direct the front-line troops to move to the defense line in central and eastern Poland to block the Soviet army, and there may be more mutinies and defections, resulting in the German government being trapped inside and out. Between hesitations, the situation on the battlefield changed three times a day. After a series of hard battles, the Allies successfully blocked the offensive of the Soviet aviation in the sky, but the loopholes in the land front could not be repaired, and the Soviet heavy troops poured in from Lviv and other areas followed the essence of the German blitzkrieg of those years, and quickly circled the back of the Allied "steel defense line" with mechanized troops. With the bitter lessons learned in the Baltic states and Belarus, the Allies had avoided the large-scale use of airborne troops in the war against the Soviet army, so they only airdropped a small amount of supplies to these trapped troops. …,

Since the end of the war in Eastern Europe in the autumn of 1947, the Allies, from top to bottom, have been shocked and frightened by the powerful fighting power of the Soviet army in the face of adversity. Although Marshall, a retired outstanding political and military strategist, was transferred from the United States, although he rewarded and punished the officers and men for their battlefield performance, and also requisitioned one million German troops to fill the vacancies caused by the previous operations, Marshall was killed in the Netherlands, and MacArthur, who had taken up his post in a hurry, was more familiar with Asia than Europe, and he also belonged to the category of military command in which his fame was greater than his ability. When the ice and snow melted, the Allied steel defense line was still being adjusted and strengthened with great fanfare, and as a result, the battle was unexpectedly vulnerable. In addition to being cut off by the Soviet troops, the American, British, French, Polish, and German armies avoided the enemy's front and slowly retreated, delaying the other side while allowing their own air forces to wear down the fighting spirit and combat strength of the Soviet troops on the way to the march, and finally organize a defensive battle to turn defeat into victory in the pre-laid strategic depth -- the defense line in central and eastern Poland.

The calculations of the Allied Command in Europe are of course good, but the multinational coalition forces have always had their own intentions, and this withdrawal has caused big trouble.

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