Smolensk, command of the Central Military District in Moscow.

From the beginning of his replacement of Yakir as commander of the Central Military District in Moscow, Trian Dafilov sought to make a change. And the first change he made was to move the headquarters from Moscow to Smolensk. The official reason is that it is convenient to command from the front. But only Trianda Filov himself knows what the real reason is.

The real reason is to stay away from Tukhachevsky, the chief of the General Staff is so fond of interfering in the normal work of his subordinates in every detail, if his command stays in Moscow, he will not have to do anything other than accompany the General Staff in verbal battles all day long.

Simply, move the headquarters away from Moscow, so that Tukhachevsky has no way to point fingers nearby, and if Triandafilov is in a hurry, he will dare to directly cut off communication with Moscow, and then you Tukhachevsky can still fly to Smolensk?

On the day when the headquarters moved to Smolensk, Trianda Filov also issued an order to the commanders of the various armies under his command, asking the commanders and commissars of the various armies to go to his headquarters for an emergency meeting.

The agenda of this emergency meeting was to discuss the operational strategy for the next stage, and, of course, to learn about the actual situation of the various armies.

As of September 20, the Moscow Central Military District has a three-front army, the Baltic Front, the Belarusian Front, and the Ukrainian Front. Among them, in the previous stage of operations, the Belarusian Front and the Ukrainian Front suffered heavy losses, and the general attrition amounted to a third. Especially the Ukrainian Front, if not for the Caucasian Front and the Central Front. I can't even stand on my feet.

So Triandafilov had to regroup his army immediately. The merger and reorganization of the Tongguò method reunites the forces that had been disrupted or simply eliminated in command.

"The Baltic Front. The four armies that had been disrupted were reorganized into three, namely the 8th, 9th and 10th armies, of which the 8th Army's main task was to cooperate with the friendly forces of East Prussia to garrison East Prussia and defend against the attacks of the German Army Group North, and it was necessary to ensure the security of East Prussia. The remaining 9th and 10th armies immediately went to Lithuania to cooperate with the Belorussian Front to close the route of the German 3rd Tank Group and the rest of Army Group Center to break through to the three Baltic states. Marchian. Comrade Mikhailovich (Popov), do you have any other opinions? ”

Popov should be familiar with the fact that this brother served in the former Far Eastern Red Banner Front. He was one of the deputy commanders, who had experienced the turmoil of Stalin's downfall, and when Tukhachevsky became the commander of the Red Front in the Far East, he was transferred. In 1940, Popov served as commander of the Baltic Naval District, and after the adjustment of the military district, he became the commander of the Baltic Front.

Popov actually has an opinion on such an adjustment, because in the previous battles, his Baltic Front did not play much initiative at all, and actually acted as a reserve for the Belarusian Front and the Ukrainian Front, in addition to supporting a large number of living forces to those two fronts. The Baltic Front could only hold on to it.

No one wanted to be a spare tire, and Popov was very unhappy with the underestimation of the role of the Baltic Front. In particular, Trian Dafilov's adjustment is actually to use the living forces of the Baltic Front to fill the holes in Belarus and Ukraine. However, now he really did not dare to directly oppose Triandafilov's rectification plan. Quite simply, Trian Dafilov is too big and represents the intentions of the Military Commission. He was only a commander of a district front, and he really couldn't resist.

Moreover, Belarus and Ukraine are really more important in terms of the shape of the front. The Baltic Front, which was relatively stable on the front and had a steady stream of Jews to support it, really had to take care of the big picture.

Of course, Popov, who should be fighting, will still fight: "Comrade Vladimir, there are only three armies left in the Baltic Front, is it a little too thin?" We don't even have reserves! ”

Trian Dafilov also knew very well that Popov's concern was not a matter of reserves at all, and he gave Popov a reassurance: "Now the shape of the front line is too tight, and the reserves can only be tilted towards Ukraine and Belarus, but the military district will give priority to replenishing the 11th Army." ”

The 11th Army, which originally belonged to the Baltic Front, was reinforced, and in the Saleva River operation, it was withdrawn and reinforced to the Belorussian Front, and then suffered heavy losses. At the moment, Triandafyilov means that the replenished 11th Army will be returned to the Baltic Front, and you Popov don't have to complain.

Sure enough, with this sweet date, Popov had no opinion. "The 3rd, 4th, 8th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 23rd armies will be assigned to the Belarusian Front, while the 5th, 6th, 9th, 19th, 22nd, 26th and Red Banner Separate Primorsky Army will be under the command of the Ukrainian Front. In addition, the remaining 11th, 16th, 19th, 20th, 21st were used as military district reserves. ”

Triandafylov left himself the reserves of five armies, which seems to be a bit exaggerated, but in fact it is not an exaggeration at all, because most of the reserves of these five armies are empty shelves. For example, Lukin's 16th Army suffered relatively large losses in the previous blocking battle, and half of the troops in the group army were transferred to fill the vacancies of other troops, and in fact, there was only one army left.

The situation was similar for the rest of the 19th, 20th and 21st armies, only the 21st Army was in slightly better shape of the three armies, and still retained the strength of two armies, and the rest were at most only one and a half armies. That is, the reserves on hand of Triandafinov are six corps, combined with two army groups.

And at this time, the Germans launched a full-scale offensive on a long front from East Prussia to Ukraine, and there were a lot of reserves for the two armies? I'm afraid it's too little, and the slightest mistake is not enough to fill in the holes.

Triandafilov also knew very well that it was almost a pipe dream to stabilize the front with only the little troops at hand, and he had to wait for the Military Commission to send reserves from other military regions to support.

However, the Military Commission also has a big head. For example, before the war. There were four fronts on the Western Front. And now, to tell the truth, there are only three left, the Central Front has been drained, and only the 1st and 2nd armies are left to garrison Norway to Leningrad, and the 7th Army is to garrison the Moscow line, which is as thin as a piece of paper.

"It is necessary to draw troops from the Far East," Frunze sighed, "first from the 30th Mechanized Army of the First Army of the Red Banner of the Far East, and the 58th Tank Division." The 26th Infantry Division of the 26th Infantry Corps was transferred to the 202nd Infantry Brigade from the 15th Infantry Corps of the Far Eastern Army. Well, let the 12th Infantry Corps of the Transbaikal Front also contribute an infantry division, and the 65th Infantry Division will be fine! The Central Asian Military Region contributed the 194th Infantry Division again......"

Frunze knew that these named troops were far from enough, and there were only five divisions at full duty, at least he had to make up a group army for the Moscow Central Military District, otherwise there would be no way to fight that battle, and he asked: "What is the situation of the newly formed 220th Mechanized Infantry Division and the 61st Tank Division, have you completed the training and preparations?" ”

Tukhachevsky replied with a bitter face: "The two divisions only completed the recruitment of personnel in June, and the vast majority of the soldiers completed the most basic training. The equipment is not completely in place, and I am afraid it is enough to go to the battlefield! ”

Frunze sighed and said, "If it's enough, you have to go up." Merge these two divisions with the 58th Tank Division to form a new mechanized corps, and transfer officers and non-commissioned officers from the 58th Tank Division, so that the old can lead the new, and let them enter the state as much as possible! ”

Tukhachevsky didn't say anything more, because the situation at the front line is really tense, especially on the Ukrainian side, and the pressure is high!

Soon, the 58th Mechanized Corps, consisting of the 61st Tank Division, the 220th Tank Division and the 38th Mechanized Division, was transferred to Kursk to serve as a reserve for the Ukrainian Front. Soon after, the division would soon face an unprecedented battle.

Where does this fierce battle begin? It has to start with the Brest blockade, near Brest Guderian ran into a nose of ashes, and was blocked by Lukin's army for more than ten days, which not only flattened the gap with the third tank group in the north, but even directly failed his attempt to attack Minsk to the north.

The Germans immediately made a round of adjustments, and in view of the rapid contraction of the Red Army and the construction of a relatively solid line of defense on the Minsk line, a quick breakthrough from Belarus was no longer possible. In order to take Moscow and eliminate the Bolsheviks, Guderian's 2nd Tank Group was to march east along the railway line to Mozyr and Gomel north of Kiev, cutting off the connection between the Belarusian Front and the Ukrainian Front from the north. Cooperate with the main forces of Army Group South to capture Kyiv. As for the 3rd tank group of the German army, it was responsible for the assault on Minsk.

Having overpassed the Brest blockade, Guderian's 2nd Tank Group quickly advanced eastward, largely unhindered along the way. By 25 September, they had reached the outskirts of Mozyri, and by this time Rokossovsky's 6th Army, which had been promoted in the previous phase of the battle, had been promoted for successfully integrating forces and cooperating with the 16th Army in the Brest blockade.

The 6th Army at this time was quite interesting, consisting of two mechanized corps (usually only one mechanized corps is assigned to an army), namely the 9th Mechanized Army (Rokossovsky's old unit) and the 4th Mechanized Army, which originally belonged to the 6th Army. In fact, if you divide it carefully, the 6th Army actually has three mechanized armies, that is, the original 8th mechanized army, which suffered heavy losses.

At this time, the Eighth Mechanized Corps actually only existed on paper, and the remaining personnel and equipment were replenished to the 9th Mechanized Corps, and according to the replenishment (or reconstruction) plan of the Military Commission, the army still had to wait.

In addition to the 4th and 9th Mechanized Corps, the 6th Army also had two half-crippled infantry corps, the 6th Infantry Corps and the 36th Infantry Corps. In the previous battles, these two armies suffered relatively large losses and are in the process of being reorganized.

What was in front of Rokossovsky should be said to be a mess, his troop losses were relatively severe, although after a certain replenishment, but the gap in equipment was still relatively large, such as two mechanized corps, under normal conditions, these two mechanized corps should have more than two thousand tanks. And now. Neither of these two mechanized corps had more than 500 tanks combined. Nearly half of them were temporarily found from warehouses, and the T-26 and BT-3, T-34 and T-35 plus one piece were less than a hundred.

To make matters worse, Rokossovsky did not have time yet, and although Lukin had bought a lot of time for the troops to retreat, the reorganization and replenishment of the troops had already consumed this precious time. There was really no time to deal with the defensive configuration of Moziri, and it was only on the day of Guderian's arrival that the 6th Army hastily pieced together two incomplete lines of defense.

The main body of the defensive line was located in Kalinković (the city is located north of Mozyri, separated from Mozyr by the Pripyat River. The railway line from Brest leads to the city of Guò into Russia). On the Mozyri side, Rokossovsky put only a few troops to pin down the Germans. Of course, spoilers in advance, Rokossovsky will regret this configuration of troops, he did not expect that the important reason why he was defeated by Guderian again was Moziri.

Without further ado, let's take a look at the fighting situation first, starting on September 26, the vanguard of the 2nd Tank Group began to launch tentative attacks one after another, and there was an exchange of fire between the two sides around the outer positions of Kalinkovich.

It can be regarded as a mutual victory and defeat, although the third tank is not a match for the T-34 and T-35. But it was easier and more pleasant to bully the T-26. In particular, this batch of T-26s equipped by the 6th Army belongs to a relatively old version and is in poor condition. And the worst thing is that this batch of T-26s is generally not equipped with radios, which makes the Red Army commanders who are accustomed to directing battles through the guò radio very uncomfortable.

"Don't take the initiative, our tanks are worse than the enemy, and they lack communication capabilities, so taking the initiative to attack is probably a dead end." Rokossovsky said helplessly, "Use the T-26 as a mobile battery and a point of fire, and use them as a fulcrum on the defensive line!" ”

This is also no way, who let the T-26 not give up? The fighters carried out Rokossovsky's instructions very well, basically put an end to unnecessary active attacks, and even some units did even worse, digging pits and burying part of the T-26s that were almost on the verge of scrapping, leaving only the turret to shoot externally, and directly used as a fixed fire point.

Of course, this alone is not a problem, Rokossovsky also urgently responded to the front command, asking for more and better tanks, otherwise, it would be empty words to hold Kalinkovich.

So how did Shaposhnikov reply to him? It's simple: "No! ”

The T-34 produced in Kharkov was absolutely divided among the local forces, after all, Kiev is still under siege, and the German southern cluster has once again begun to jump forward after a period of adjustment and recuperation, and it is very likely that it will continue to attack Kharkov, or more simply try to attack Moscow again. Relative to the security of Kyiv, Kharkov and Moscow, Kalinkovich is simply too inconspicuous.

Not only is there no support on land, but the air support that Rokossovsky can get is quite limited, and most of the air power is allocated to the Minsk and Kyiv directions, and Rokossovsky, who is not relying on both ends, really can't get decent air support.

The only thing that reassured Rokossovsky a little was that Triandafyilov promised him that the 16th Army near Gomel was being replenished quickly and would be back into battle by mid-October at the latest, and that all he needed to do was grit his teeth and wait for Lukin to return to the battlefield. Lukin was also enough to give Rokossovsky face and guarantee that the 16th Army would be brought back to the battlefield within twenty days.

Since this was the result, Rokossovsky could only grit his teeth and hold on, and when the first line of positions was attacked by the Germans, he mobilized the entire Kalinkovich residents to repair the defensive line, anyway, twenty-four hours without rest. Three days after the battle broke out, he grabbed three other lines of defense and wrapped Kalinkovich tightly.

So much so that when Guderian arrived at Kalinkovich and looked at the small city with his glasses, he couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity - why did it smell like Brest?

For Brest and Lukin, who made him lose some face, the tank monster has feelings, and if the same conditions were replaced by him, I am afraid that he would not be able to rely on a ragtag army to support him for so long. It can even be said that if Lukin had not taken the initiative to retreat, his third tank group would have had to go around Brest.

Having learned the lesson of the last time, Guderian would no longer despise the enemy, and he asked the staff officer: "Which unit is the defender in front?" Who is the commander? ”

"It belonged to the Soviet 6th Army, and according to the confession of the prisoners, the commander was Lieutenant General Rokossovsky."

Guderian had not heard much of the name Rokossovsky, after all, Rokossovsky was eight years younger than him, and before the war, Rokossovsky was placed by Tukhachevsky again, and missed the opportunity to be promoted to the commander of the army group.

"What are the characteristics of this person?" Guderian asked again.

However, the staff officer could not answer this question, because the devil knows what characteristics Rokossovsky has, and if it weren't for Guderian asking, he temporarily went through the information, I'm afraid he wouldn't even be able to say Rokossovsky's name.

Guderian was a little dissatisfied, and solemnly gave an order: "This will not work, find a way to find out Rokossovsky's resume, I want to know his one!" As he spoke, he was still a little uneasy, and added: "You must give priority to this work, I will get accurate information tonight!" (To be continued......)

PS: Bow and thank you to 1358272 and Comrade Juventus!