Polish battlefield, Poznan salient

Groups of shells whistling across the sky with long tail flames, falling like meteor showers on the lines of the opposing armies, the German offensive ceased in late April, and they seemed unable to capture the impregnable fortress of Poznan, and had no intention of bypassing it and continuing to advance into the depths of the Soviet-Polish forces, but began to dig trenches to consolidate the protrusion that they had so hard won into the depths of the Trotsky line

But their opponents, the Soviet Red Army and the Polish Red Army, apparently could not tolerate the presence of such a salient firmly controlled by their opponents in their neat defensive line, and the day after the Germans launched their onslaught, Tukhachevsky, the chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Red Army, arrived in Warsaw as a representative of Trotsky and temporarily took over the command of the Polish Front. A comprehensive assembly to the Poznan salient Every night, when the Luftwaffe temporarily withdrew from the sky, tens of thousands of military trucks, tens of thousands of horse-drawn wagons, and hundreds of thousands of Polish working people who had been mobilized were constantly transporting astronomical amounts of military equipment, ammunition, food, and medical supplies to this place, which were stored in secret warehouses close to the front line, and military commands of all levels entered the fortified shelters that had been built long ago in the past nearly 10 years. The year-round hard work of millions of Polish prisoners finally turned western Poland into the most densely populated area of all kinds of military installations in the world, and gave the Soviet Union and the Polish Red Army the most favorable main battlefield

After more than two weeks of mobilization preparations, nearly two million Soviet-Polish troops have assembled in such a relatively small area (relative to 2 million troops) around the Poznan salient, behind the battle line where the attack was planned, it seems that the flat land on both sides of every road that has not been covered by buildings has become artillery positions, and the gods of war are neatly lined up, and the muzzles of countless black holes are raised high and aimed at the distant sky! There are countless 76.2mm field guns, 76.2mm anti-aircraft guns, 76.2mm anti-tank guns, 122mm howitzers, 152mm heavy field howitzers, and the newly developed 203mm heavy howitzer known as Trotsky's hammer covering almost the entire plain! That's more than 15,000 light and heavy artillery, maybe this is the real destruction of the Soviet Red Army

However, the Soviet-Polish army prepared for this battle of the Bulge, far more than these columns full of tanks and armored vehicles are constantly marching into Poland, Trotsky did his best to draw armored forces from various battlefields, 32 tank armies have been assigned to the Polish Front, if all these troops are all in place, and all of them are fully loaded, the Polish Front will have nearly 7,000 tanks and strong artillery! There were also thousands of planes hovering in the air, providing protection from the air for the army on the ground, and the invading German fighters launched rounds of jīliè battles, and even dispatched hundreds of TB3 heavy bombers to attack the German capital Berlin at night!

In this planned battle of the Bulge, the 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 27th, 28th, 30th, 50th, 51st, 53rd, 55th, 59th, 61st armies of the Soviet Red Army, plus the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 6th, 8th armies of the Poles and 32 Red Tank Corps will launch a surprise attack from the Kosiqiang and Desert Tuvi directions at the same time under the unified command of Tukhachevsky on the front line! Their opponents were the Poznan Salient Cluster, consisting of the German 1st Panzer Army, the 2nd Panzer Army, the 4th Army, and the 6th Army, which had been preparing for the assault since late April under the unified command of the commander of the German 1st Panzer Group, General Rundsteide

However, Tukhachevsky did not give the Germans much time to prepare, and on May 1, International Labor Day, the artillery of the Soviet-Polish army began to roar! On a front of more than 100 kilometers, countless orange fires, large and small, began to bloom, and more than 12,000 light and heavy guns spat out flames and dropped shells on the Germans' impregnable positions! According to the plan, the artillery preparation before the attack of the Soviet-Polish coalition forces will last for 6 days and 6 nights! Tens of millions of shells will be knocked out! The front-line positions of the Germans will be razed to the ground, and the armored forces deployed at the front will be completely wiped out by Soviet artillery fire! And then there was a massive assault of a mountain of infantry and tank clusters!

……

"The shelling of the Poznan salient continues! The Soviets concentrated more than 10,000 artillery pieces to bombard the German positions, and the Germans used more than 5,000 cannons to fight back, almost hitting the surface of the moon at the same time, in the rest of the entire Polish-German front, both sides launched large-scale artillery battles In addition, the Soviet Air Force also launched a night attack on Berlin, the capital of Germany, "At the regular morning meeting of the Tangshan Chancellery in Nanjing, Wang Junhao frowned and put the telegram he had just received in front of Chang Ruiqing: "Brother Yaoru, Hitler seems to have been angered by the bombing of the Soviets, vowed to take all of Poland and regain East Prussia within six months, and to occupy all Soviet airfields from wēixié to Berlin"

"Hitler's tone is not small, but ...... His Wehrmacht may really have such strength, but how will Britain and France react? They don't seem to want Germany to be bigger, right? Zhaoming, don't you say? The Northwest Front Army has had good news reports every few days, and Chang Ruiqing's mood is also much more relaxed, with a smile on his face when he speaks, and he happily looks at Foreign Minister Wang Jingwei who is frowning slightly

The latter shook his head slightly and said: "Now the attitude of Britain and France is not completely consistent, Chamberlain seems to support Germany's annexation of Poland, according to the tone of his speech in the House of Commons of the British Parliament, we and Germany will be compensated for the blood, sweat and wealth that we and Germany have paid, and the Germanic nation can get back what they lost after the First World War, and we can also obtain a part of the territory of the Soviet Union on the basis of the Treaty of Nebuchu, and at the same time we can include Japan and Korea in the territory of the Great China Federation."

However, the attitude of the French is very ambiguous now, after the assassination of Pilsudski a while ago, they recalled the ambassador to Germany, and also provided a large amount of military and economic assistance to the Polish Army and the White Russian Free Army, but after the Soviet Red Army put up a posture to counterattack the Poznan salient, the French assisted Germany with a number of French versions of the Stalker, tank destroyers and anti-aircraft guns, and there are also rumors that French Foreign Minister Briand also secretly met with the Soviet ambassador to Switzerland Amphityetloff not long ago"

"Hehe, these French guys have really grown a lot, and they have also learned from the British and started to play balancing!" Chang Ruiqing sneered: "It seems that Poland is a weather vane, once the Germans occupy Poland, France may collude with the Soviet Union, and on the contrary, they will continue to provide support to Germany!" ”

However, France was not the decisive force in World War II after all, and if Germany really took Poland and East Prussia from the hands of millions of Soviet Red Army and Polish Red Army, the French would probably not have the courage to go to war with Germany, right? Even if they don't open their eyes to fight with Germany, most of them will end up in a fiasco, and now the real variable is actually the United States, thinking of this, Chang Ruiqing asked again: "Zhaoming: What is the reaction of the Americans?" ”

"U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt has just approved the transfer of 50 flat-deck destroyers to Germany for use in the Atlantic Ocean."

"Report in plain code!? Isn't this tantamount to informing the Anglo-German side about the specific location of Soviet submarines? ”

All the officers here knew what this meant, and the Anglo-German convoys sailing in the Atlantic, after receiving these clear-coded telegrams, would choose to bypass the waters where the Soviet submarines were located, and the US Navy was clearly helping Britain and Germany in this way

"What about the record of Soviet submarines in the Atlantic?" Chang Ruiqing frowned slightly and asked the Minister of the Navy Chen Shaokuandao In his memory, German submarines caused great difficulties to Britain in World War II, but in this time and space, the appearance of Soviet submarines does not seem to be much more brilliant

"It's not satisfactory, the Soviet submarine base is too far from the Atlantic route, so their submarines can't stay in the Atlantic Ocean for long, although there are many of them, but the actual combat is very limited"

Chen Shaokuan shook his head, and continued: "In July and August last year, the record was okay, sinking less than 1.5 million tons of British and German merchant ships in two months, but then the British and German navies established a joint anti-submarine escort command, and also adjusted part of the route, formed all the transport ships into formations, and arranged a large number of destroyers to escort the ship, so the loss of British and German merchant ships has dropped sharply since September last year, and only lost 200,000 tons last month. Far less than the tonnage of their newly built merchant ships, if Britain and Germany get another 50 flat-deck class Americans, I am afraid that the Soviet submarines can achieve even less results"

"It seems that Roosevelt is very optimistic about the future of the Soviet Union, and wants to squeeze into the world war before Trotsky's defeat to get a piece of the pie" Chang Ruiqing smiled and said: "Just like this anxious roar, how much can you get?" If I were Roosevelt, I would have found a way to aid the Soviet Union, and only by letting the Soviet Union fight Britain and Germany would the United States have a chance to be the savior."

"It's impossible for Roosevelt to come to the aid of the Soviet Union," Wang Jingwei waved his hand and said with a smile: "Now the Soviet Union's foreign shipping routes are basically blocked, and the Soviet Union's merchant ships can't go to sea at all, and the United States wants to abide by the China law, so it is impossible to send ships to deliver goods to the door, besides, they have a huge investment in Germany, and if Germany lets Trotsky step on it, the Yankees' tens of billions of dollars will be wasted, so now the Americans are trying their best to help Germany, at the end of this month, U.S. Commerce Secretary Hopkins is also preparing to lead a large U.S. trade mission to Germany, which is said to be preparing to reach a barter trade agreement with Germany, exchanging U.S. oil, warships, and non-ferrous metals for German aviation and military technology."

"Do you know the size of the deal?" Chang Ruiqing pondered for a moment The gap between the industrial technology of the United States and Germany is not large, although Germany currently has a certain lead in the field of aviation and military industry, but it will not be difficult for no country to catch up, it seems that there is no need to exchange oil and warships, right?

Wang Jingwei shrugged his shoulders and shook his head: "The diplomatic department can only inquire about the general situation, and now it only knows that the scale of oil transactions between the United States and Germany may be very large, and the price of oil in the Chicago futures market in the United States has risen by 100% during this time."

"This means that the United States is helping Germany a lot!" Chang Ruiqing's face suddenly became solemn: "But why did Roosevelt, the old fox, do this?" ”

"To oppose the Soviet GC system, of course!" Mao Zd, chairman of the Chinese government and chairman of the Political Council, has rarely met with Chang Ruiqing since the start of the war, and today he specially rushed to Tangshan from Nanjing to discuss the issue of additional war budget with Premier Chang Da, so he participated in the morning meeting by the way: "Now the Soviet Union and Germany have set up a decisive battle in Poznan, and Germany lacks sufficient strategic depth, once defeated in Poznan, it is very likely to cause the consequences of the collapse of the whole front, which is extremely unfavorable to the entire capitalist camp, so Roosevelt will come to Germany's aid."

Chang Ruiqing nodded slightly, noncommittal Mao ZD's explanation also makes sense, but Chang Ruiqing always felt that something was wrong, the Poznan front line had already been turned into a pot of porridge, and what Hitler needed most was probably tanks, planes, and artillery, right? What role can some oil and warships play on the battlefield in Poznan at this time? The former Germans still have tens of millions of tons of reserves, and the latter can't go ashore at all, just as he was about to express the doubts in his heart, when he was discussing with everyone, the telephone on the table suddenly rang

Chang Ruiqing picked up the phone and heard the voice of Lan Tianwei, deputy chief of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht: "Prime Minister, I just received an urgent telegram from our delegation to Germany, and the Soviet army's tank assault on the German positions in the Poznan salient has begun!" In addition, the German High Command requested our Northern Front and the Northwestern Front to launch a fierce attack on the Soviet troops in front of them in order to distract them from the pressure......"

……

At this moment, in the desert areas of Vitu and Kohiqiang on the north and south sides of the Poznan salient, the way the Soviet artillery fire was fired had changed from a comprehensive suppression to a slow barrage of fire, according to the speed of mixed tank and infantry cluster advance, the explosion point of the artillery fire extending forward 200 meters per minute was concentrated in the middle part of the battle line of the two armies, and the landing point was concentrated to an unimaginable level, and a moving wall of death composed of explosions, shrapnel, smoke and fire was immediately built in the formation of the two armies

The assault of the Soviet troops began!

In the direction of the main attack on the north and south flanks of the Poznan salient, more than 50,000 infantry belonging to a total of 6 Polish infantry divisions poured out of the trenches, most of these Polish officers and soldiers were very young, they were all grown up in the light of the great Polish leader Menzhinsky, the Polish patriotic party youth, in their minds, the Polish GCD and Menzhinsky were sacred affairs wrapped in dazzling light, and Pilsudski and his henchmen were traitors to the people, of course, They did not know that this enemy of the people had died in the internal struggle of the imperialist reactionaries, so they shouted: "Long live the Polish GCD, long live Menzhinsky, down with Pilsudski!" The slogan marched majestically and with high spirits, following behind the slow-moving wall of artillery fire, and striding forward with the greatest excitement

The officers and men of the Polish 1st "GC International" Division who participated in the attack were the staunchest supporters of the Polish GCD, and in the face of the death of Wēixié, they even sang the impassioned tune "The Internationale" and marched forward in unison with a rather dense line of skirmishers! Behind these charging Polish young soldiers, there is the legendary extremely powerful Soviet tank cluster, the Su76 strong attack gun is at the forefront of the tank cluster, the T28/1932 is covering on both sides, the T26 tank is at the end of the tank cluster, and there are at least 30,000 Soviet infantry accompanying these tanks In the first wave of the Soviet-Polish offensive, they invested 1,500 tanks, Assault artillery and 80,000 infantry! In the face of this red army, which can overwhelm a qiē, the reactionary army of imperialist Germany should have run away, right?

The German firepower that greeted them was really not fierce, and in the smoke and dust that had not yet dispersed, there were only some indiscriminate machine guns and 45mm anti-tank guns, and the Germans' first-line strength was not much, in order to avoid the killing and wounding of Soviet artillery, they adopted elastic defense tactics, and only a small number of infantry were deployed on the front line, although they were still insisting on resisting, but in the face of the Soviet-Polish coalition forces that were pouring in like a tide, they could only be said to be insignificant on the front line of dozens of kilometers of Mianyang on the north and south flanks of Poznan, The Soviet-Polish army, which split into two huge attack arrows and attacked the root of the salient, quickly tore through the first line of defense of the German army, and rushed towards the huge armored cluster deployed in the depth of the German army with cheers!

One of the biggest tank battles in the history of mankind is about to unfold on the Great Polish Plains!