Old Hemsstra was a little tired, and for an old man who was almost eighty years old, a long and high-intensity march was definitely devastating. If you are another old man, he is already tired at this time, that is, he, a freak with great energy, can still hold on.

Just as old Hemstra was taking a nap, a crisp voice behind him asked, "Daddy, where are we?" ”

Old Hemstra liked to be called Daddy, and he thought it was old and respected, and when he looked at the young man leaning against the turret behind him, he replied kindly, "Near Sokowulf!" ”

Sokovuf is a small city south of Upper Maukinia, and there is a story as to why the old Hemsstra appeared here. The old man belonged to the 100th Independent Heavy Tank Battalion and had previously been fighting with the 8th Mechanized Corps. After the defeat in Warsaw, part of the battalion retreated with Rokossovsky to Lublin, while the other part, the part of the old Hemstra, was responsible for blocking the rear. After the successful completion of the mission, the retreat to Lublin had already been occupied by the Germans, and they had no choice but to retreat in the direction of Menzizhets with the rest of the fraternal forces.

In Menzizhec, the old man and the remnants of the 100th separate battalion of heavy tanks were once again left behind, and it is known that in the end they could not completely stop the German advance, and when Guderian's second tank group rushed to Brest, the old man had to retreat north with the last three T-54s of the battalion.

At this time, the unit to which the old man belonged could be described as a hodgepodge, with both the T-100 of the 54th separate heavy tank battalion, as well as the T-34 and BT-7 of other mechanized corps. Of course. The most are still infantry. About a battalion of infantry followed the armored forces to the north.

At this time, the commander of this motley force was Afanasi. Pavrantievich. Beloborodov. Speaking of which, this Belorodov was really unlucky, he did not serve on the Western Front at the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War. Instead, he served as the head of military training in the Far Eastern Red Banner Front, and after the outbreak of the war, he was transferred to Smolensk by a paper order to serve as the head of military training of the Central Front. The main task is to complete the operational preparation work of the Central Front, and to put it bluntly, to train new soldiers.

However, when Beloborodov arrived in Smolensk, the order changed again, and he became the deputy commander of the 198th Mechanized Division of the 198th Mechanized Army. By order of Tukhachevsky, the division took part in the operation on the Salefa River.

During Operation Saleva River, the 198th Mechanized Division was left behind to act as a blocking force, and in Menzizhec, Beloborodov watched Guderian tear through his defenses, and in the chaos he could only break through with a small number of troops.

"What is the situation in Sokovuv now. Is the 1st Guards Mechanized Army still on Maukinia? Beloborodov asked anxiously to the scout.

"Comrade Colonel, Upper Maukinia has been lost. It is said that last night, the comrades of the 1st Guards Mechanized Army chose to break through ......"

Beloborodov was half a waist down, and his only hope before was to join up with the 1st Guards Mechanized Army, so that they could have any hope of survival, and at this time, the loss of Upper Maukinia announced that his troops were completely under siege by the enemy, and it was only a matter of time before they were annihilated.

In front of Beloborodov there was almost no choice, either to fight guerrillas on the spot, or to surrender to the Germans on his own initiative, and the latter possibility was ruthlessly dispelled as soon as it appeared in his mind.

It seems that there is only one way out of Beloborodov's eyes, and that is to persist in fighting behind enemy lines, but in order to achieve this, it is necessary to find a way to keep the troops alive first.

As mentioned earlier, Beloborodov was in a rather bad position, with the German 3rd Tank Group to the north and the 2nd Tank Group to the south, and in the middle of these two clusters was crowded with other units of the German Army Group Center, and it seemed that he did not even have a place to stay. To survive, Beloborodov had to jump out of the circle.

"First to the northwest, with the aim of crossing the Bug River and moving to East Prussia."

This was Beloborodov's final decision, but not all the heads approved of his decision, because the enemy in the north-western direction was not weak at all, and the follow-up units of the German 3rd tank group were in that direction, and it would be self-defeating to cross the blockade of the cluster to East Prussia.

"Why don't we retreat directly to Belarus and cross the Bug River east to Cherekham?"

From the map it seemed to be safer, but Beloborodov thought it was more dangerous, and fled in the direction of Belarus, which was to flee in the direction of the German front, and inevitably encountered the main force of the German army, which was probably crushed in minutes. It can be said that fleeing to Belarus seems to be a shortcut, but in fact it is a dead end.

Beloborodov felt that if he wanted to survive and survive, he had to take advantage of loopholes and run to the weak position of the German army.

Beloborodov patiently explained his ideas to his comrades, and won as much support as possible, and in the end the vast majority of them agreed with him. It has to be said that Belorodov made the right decision, worthy of the fact that he can be named the commander of the thirty-three best army groups in the Great Patriotic War in history (in third place!). ）。

Interestingly, there are many people who think about the same as Beloborodov, such as Petrovsky. When leading the First Mechanized Army of the Guards to break through, Li Xiaofeng's little cellmate also came by surprise.

Petrovsky did not choose to break through in the direction of Belarus, nor in the direction of East Prussia, but in the direction of the Bug River, where the Germans considered it impossible for him to go. In the middle of the night, he led more than 3,000 soldiers to make a surprise attack on the German troops on the banks of the Bug River, and then forced his way across the river and rushed out of the enemy's encirclement.

Commander of the 3rd German Panzer Group, Hermann. When Admiral Holt learned of this, he was dumbfounded and kept muttering, "Crazy Ivan." This is completely counterintuitive. The Russians are simply insane! ”

This decision of Petrovsky is indeed crazy. After all, the most taboo thing when breaking through is that there are obstacles, and if you think about it, there are enemies and rivers blocking it, which is very dangerous! And it will be difficult to break through from this direction and return to Belarus, no matter how you look at it, this is a bad choice.

But Petrovsky did not see it that way, he believed that it was precisely because this direction seemed to be the worst and the most unlikely option to break through that it was the most likely to break through here. Think about it. The number of German troops defending in this direction would not be large, and the vigilance would not be high, which would be tantamount to reducing the resistance to a breakthrough.

As it turned out, Petrovsky was right, his breakthrough took the Germans by surprise, and in a half-awake state, the Germans guarding the banks of the river were wiped out, and as for the so-called forced crossing, in fact it was not difficult at all, and the well-meaning German sappers had just erected a pontoon bridge the day before (in order to increase the capacity of the third tank group). The 1st Guards Mechanized Army crossed the river almost at a trot. Wait for the Germans to react. It's already too late.

Even Petrovsky somewhat regretted that it would have been so easy if he had known. I won't leave the wounded to the Germans, I can take them all out!

"Take an inventory of the troops, make a statistic, and tell comrades that we are not safe yet, and we must be ready to fight a vicious war!"

Yes, Petrovsky knew very well that although he jumped out of the small encirclement of Verkhniya Maukinia, his troops were actually still in a much larger encirclement, and soon the Germans would come to encircle him, and they would have to fight hard to survive!

The results of the statistics soon came out, and the troops that broke out of the encirclement totaled 3,095 people, of which the First Guards Mechanized Army accounted for 2,011 people, and the rest were brother troops that cooperated with the operation, that is to say, more than 70,000 people in the two armies responsible for blocking the German army in Upper Maukinia, and in the end, only 3,000 people escaped from Upper Maukinia, which is an extremely alarming loss!

"There are 11 more T-34s, nine T-35s, eight BT-7s, and four BT-5s, for a total of thirty-two. In addition, there are 23 MB-LT36 vehicles, 37 large and small vehicles, and more than 100 artillery pieces of various types, most of which are mortars. ”

Such a statistical result is naturally not good-looking, compared with the 1st Mechanized Army of the Guards at its peak, this little equipment is not enough to even plug the teeth. Anyway, Petrovsky wanted to cry when he heard it, but fortunately he knew that now was not the time to cry, there were still many difficulties and obstacles ahead, and he had to be strong enough as a commander.

"It is absolutely impossible to retreat directly in the direction of Belarus, there are too many enemies, our only way of life is in East Prussia, but to withdraw to East Prussia we have to cross the Bug River again, and this time, the enemy will not let us pass easily!"

When Petrovsky analyzed the situation, the officers held their breath, which showed that they still respected and convinced Petrovsky, and you must know that the elites of the 1st Guards Mechanized Army were all in the army, and a considerable number of them were Tukhachevsky's protégés, and it was not ordinarily difficult to convince them. And Petrovsky did just that, which shows how outstanding his ability is.

"With our current forces, it is difficult to cross the Bug River to East Prussia. The next thing we need to do is to let the comrades rest on the spot for a while, the previous stage of the battle was too difficult and the comrades had to be given a breather. In addition, we should gather as much supplies as possible, preferably to gather comrades from other fraternal units that have been routed by the Germans, and I believe that a considerable number of comrades should be fighting behind enemy lines, just like us! ”

Petrovsky had authority, but this did not mean that his protégés would unconditionally agree with his opinion, and soon many additional opinions were put forward:

"Will resting in place lead us to be overtaken by the enemy?"

"What should I do if I meet the main force of the enemy when I gather comrades from other fraternal units?"

Petrovsky solved these problems very well: "We do not have many troops, and the enemy's target is Belarus, Minsk, for the time being they are unlikely to draw too many main forces to encircle us, for the time being we are safe." ”

After a pause, he added: "However, this does not mean that we are not in danger, and it does not mean that we will always be safe." While resting, you should be on guard, and it is best to cross the river again as much as possible. Only arrived in East Prussia. We're really safe! ”

"As for whether it will meet the main forces of the enemy." Petrovsky shook his head, "The main forces of the enemy should be on the line of communication to Minsk, as long as we don't stupidly rush there, it should be safe." ”

Petrovsky's judgment is basically no problem, because the German army really does not pay much attention to him, and on the Eastern Front, not to mention more than 3,000 people, more than 30,000 people are drizzle. On this long front, there were nearly 10 million troops fighting at the beginning, and at the peak it was close to 20 million, and a division, an army, or even a group army was nothing.

Petrovsky's only one regiment can do a limited amount of danger, and for Army Group Center, Minsk and Moscow are the targets, a small shrimp like Petrovsky. I don't care about it at all.

The 3rd Tank Cluster, having pulled out the last nail in the upper Maukinia, was finally able to advance unimpeded towards Bialystok. Previously their vanguard had caught up with the tail of the main forces of the Red Army. After a modest battle, they captured Bialystok lightly.

At this time, Bock had already set the next goal, in which the 3rd tank group would capture Grodno and attack in the direction of Minsk along the railway line, and if the resistance encountered was not particularly great, a part of the troops could also be sent to attack Lithuania, and it would be best if it could occupy Lithuania.

Why? Because Army Group North had not fought well before, and in East Prussia it was mired in a quagmire of fighting, and the Jews, with the continuous military assistance of the Soviet Union, fought quite tenaciously and almost exhausted Army Group North.

If Army Group Center could occupy Lithuania, it would be possible to cut off East Prussia from the Soviet Union, and without the support of the Soviet Union, how many days would the Jews of East Prussia be able to hold out?

Of course, this qiē is based on a qiē shun lì, if the Soviet resistance is fierce after entering Belarus, then Bock will decisively give up attacking Lithuania, and Minsk is the most important thing first.

At the same time, in Moscow, the Military Commission also quietly breathed a sigh of relief, because the 1st Guards Mechanized Army was powerful enough, so that the main force of the Red Army could retreat safely, as of September 10, the vast majority of the Red Army had retreated to the line of Grodno and Volkovysk, and had been freed from the entanglement of the German army.

However, this also created a problem, and the Military Commission was divided again, with one opinion that the Red Army had been extricated from the most dangerous situation, and now had time to build a line of defense on the Grodno, Volkovysk and Brest lines, where it was perfectly possible to hold off the Germans.

Another opinion is that it is very dangerous for the main forces of the Red Army to stay on the front line of Grodno, Volkovysk, and Brest, and that the main forces of the Red Army in retreat are rather chaotic, and that they are only initially free from entanglement with the German army, and that once they stop, the German army will quickly catch up, and there will not be much time to build a defensive line, and the huge sacrifices made by the blocking troops before will be in vain.

This opinion also held that even if there was enough time to build a defensive line on the Grodno, Volkovysk, and Brest lines, the Red Army could not stay too long, because on the Western Front, the German army had already established a relative advantage in the previous part of the operation, and the Red Army's disposition of forces on the Western Front at this time was not enough to resist the German attack.

In order to stabilize the front, it is inevitable that the Central Front will need to follow up and reinforce, and now the main force of the Central Front is still on the way from the Velikiye Luki and Smolensk lines to Minsk, and relying only on the existing troops on the front line will not be able to stop the new offensive of the German army at all, and when the time comes, it will have to be fought again, wasting the living strength of the Red Army in vain.

The latter opinion is represented by Li Xiaofeng and Frunze, while the former opinion is headed by Sverdlov, Trotsky and Tukhachevsky. There may be comrades who want to say, could it be that Tu Shuai has convulsions again?

In good conscience, this time it was not Tukhachevsky's convulsions, and after the blows in the previous paragraph, Tukhachevsky also knew that it was a fool's dream to rely on the existing troops on the Western Front to stabilize the front, and from a military point of view, he also supported the latter opinion, believing that the safest and safest way to do so was to continue to retreat in great strides. It is better to strictly clear the walls at the same time, lengthen the front of the German army, and as long as it holds out until October, it will basically be possible to drag the war into the orbit of a war of attrition and a protracted war, which will be beneficial to the Soviet Union.

So why did Tukhachevsky support the first opinion? is still the same sentence, people are in the rivers and lakes, and they can't help themselves. From a military point of view, it is reasonable to retreat in stride, but from a political point of view, it is quite unreasonable.

Neither Trotsky nor Sverdlov liked to see the Red Army abandon the territories of Grodno, Volkovysk and Brest without firing a single shot, and the pressure would be very high, and someone would say: "Trotsky." Sverdlov, you are all talking cannons, shouting the slogan of defending the country and never allowing the enemy to occupy an inch of the country, but in fact you fled in a hurry and gave away a large area of rivers and mountains to the enemy, this is a traitor, you two are traitors! ”

On the one hand, on the other hand, the two of them could not bear to think that their compatriots in Belarus and Ukraine would have to accept the enslavement of the Nazis, and they always had the illusion that the German army was tired after this round of fierce attacks, and it was time for them to rest, and the Red Army was fighting on its own soil, occupying the right time and place, so why could it not stabilize the defensive line? (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to xuyiqing1985, zz120, pig dashing 2, Admiral Hood, weigede and Comrade Juventus!