The Rise of the Third Reich

If one of Leningrad and Moscow is lost, there will be big trouble. If two are lost, it will definitely be the end of the Red Soviet Union!

Regarding this conclusion, the people who participated in the enlarged meeting of the political bureau had no different opinions. The main content to be studied at today's enlarged political meeting is, of course, how to relieve the siege of Leningrad and defeat the enemies trying to invade Moscow.

"Comrade Pavlov, Comrade Shaposhnikov, tell me about the battle plan." Stalin raised his hand and pointed to the large military map hanging on the wall of the conference room - this is the entire Soviet-German battlefield. Situation map.

Judging from the situation map, the situation faced by the Soviet Union in April 1943 in this time and space seems to be much better than that in the same period in history.

First of all, the Soviet Union did not lose large areas of land. Compared with August 1939 before the start of the world war, the Soviet Union lost almost no land. Now the main front of the Soviet and German armies is along the Soviet Union's national border in August 1939.

On the central battlefield, the German army occupied Western Belarus, which was originally part of Poland. The front lines of both sides are currently spread out along the Minsk-Pinsk line (going north-south), and the border line between East Belarus and the Baltic States (going east-west). Moreover, the German army has been on the defensive in Belarus since the arrival of the mud season last autumn, and there is some intention of stopping there.

On the Ukrainian battlefield on the southern front, the German offensive lasted throughout the autumn and winter until the German army completely occupied Kiev. But the Germans had no intention of crossing the Dnieper River. Even when the Dnieper River froze and the defenses on the east bank were quite empty, the Germans did not cross the river on a large scale (of course there were small-scale fire reconnaissance). The Germans' goal in Ukraine seems to be only to obtain the right-bank Ukraine, which was originally owned by Poland.

The only place where the German army crossed the Soviet border in August 1939 was near Leningrad, and Leningrad was surrounded. However, the Germans had no intention of attacking Leningrad, but only besieged it, as if they wanted to starve the heroic Leningrad people into submission.

Of course... it's also possible that the siege is just a bargaining chip!

As for the real purpose of the Germans, to be honest, even the far-sighted Stalin is now confused.

Because the Germans did not make a large-scale invasion, but they also agreed to hold secret talks with the Soviet Union, and also put forward conditions - in Belarus and the Baltic Sea coast, the Soviet-Polish and Soviet-Finnish borders in August 1939 were used as the Soviet Union's national borders. Transfer all of Ukraine to German administration.

The conditions are certainly unacceptable, but the Germans' ambitions seem to have been exposed. At most, they only want Ukraine, and have not thought about destroying the entire Soviet Union.

But at the same time, the Germans supported the former Russian Empress Olga...

Therefore, the Soviet Bolshevik Party and Government studied for a long time and finally came to a conclusion that seemed to be closest to reality-there were huge differences within Germany on whether to eliminate the Soviet Union.

The Junkers group of officers headed by Reichsmarschall Hersmann and Reichsmarschall Schleicher may not be willing to destroy the Soviet Union. Most of them were friends of the Soviet Union before June 1942 and were still involved in Soviet-German cooperation and Soviet-German trade. Great benefits were obtained.

The German right-wing scab forces represented by Nazi leader Hitler obviously hated the Soviet Union extremely. Although these people also used the sign of socialism, their hatred of the Soviet Union even exceeded that of the greedy capitalists!

"According to the judgment of the Supreme Command, it is determined that the goal of the German Nazi imperialist group in 1943 will be to seize the entire Ukraine, seize Leningrad and Warsaw through a long siege, and advance towards Moscow in the center, but will not launch an attack on Moscow …”

Marshal Pavlov first introduced the Supreme Command's judgment of the German army's intentions. Among them, the judgment of seizing the entire Ukraine is based on the secret peace talks between the Soviet Union and Germany. Germany...at least the goal of the German Juncker Group is Ukraine. This is very clear. Then what they cannot get at the negotiation table may be seized by military means. , this is also the consistent practice of the Junkers officer group.

And seizing the isolated city of Warsaw through siege is certain, needless to say. As for the gains and losses in Leningrad, in Stalin's view it was likely to determine Germany's policy towards the Soviet Union. If Leningrad eventually becomes "Her Majesty's Faithful Petrograd", then the destruction of the Soviet Union may become Germany's national policy!

On the contrary, the people of Leningrad would rather starve to death than surrender, and the great Soviet Red Army lifted the siege of Leningrad in time. Then the Germans will fully realize the invincible will of the Soviet people to resist.

As for the judgment that Germany would advance toward Moscow in the center but would not capture Moscow, Pavlov and Shaposhnikov came to it after carefully studying the German army's past battles.

Nowadays, the German army rarely attacks fortified cities. Warsaw is besieged, Leningrad is also besieged, and Minsk simply ignores it. In the Polish campaign and the Western Front campaign, the German army had almost no cases of attacking heavily fortified cities. Both Pavlov and Shaposhnikov believed that the Germans seemed afraid of the huge casualties that might result from attacking a fortified city.

The only exception was the Battle of Kiev, which was heavily guarded. However, most of the German troops attacking Kiev were Western Ukrainians from Lviv, not Germans. No matter how heavy their casualties are, it will not do any harm to the Germans. On the contrary, it will be beneficial to the Germanization of the entire right-bank Ukraine and Western Ukraine...

Marshal Pavlov continued, "Therefore, after research by the People's Commissariat of Defense and the General Staff, it was believed that in 1943 the Red Army should adopt a deep defense posture east of the Dnieper River to deal with the large-scale offensive that the German army might launch. At the same time, the Kalinin Front should be strengthened, and the second Leningrad Relief Campaign should be launched with this front as the main force.

In the middle, fewer troops can be used for defense, and fortifications should be built near the city of Moscow."

"Build fortifications near the city of Moscow?" Stalin suddenly interrupted Pavlov, "Is this necessary?"

"Comrade General Secretary, this is just a preventive measure," Pavlov immediately explained, "Same It was also a strategy to deter the Germans. As long as the German High Command knew that Moscow was a strong city, it would not easily march towards Moscow..."

"Why can't we stop them in Minsk and Smolensk?" Stalin took a few puffs of his pipe, his face gloomy. "Since last June, when we anticipated that Germany would invade and launched a preemptive attack, we have been mobilizing and transferred hundreds of thousands of troops back from the Far East. Don't we have enough troops to stop Germany far away from Moscow?"

Now the vigorous world revolution has become...preventive preemptive, and the Soviet-German War has also turned into a great patriotic war.

While the propaganda caliber gradually changed, the Soviet government was also doing its best to expand the Red Army. Because the German army did not penetrate deep into the Soviet hinterland and occupy large areas of densely populated land. Therefore, the Soviet government has more favorable conditions than in history in mobilizing and expanding the army. In addition, the United States also provided a large amount of assistance to help the Soviet Red Army recover quickly.

So by the spring of 1943, the Red Army was even stronger than when the World Revolution broke out in June 1942... no, it should be the Preventive Patriotic War. The Red Army's troops on paper had long exceeded 12 million, and it had organized more army groups, corps and divisions, and the scale of its mechanized forces was also larger.

Moreover, the Red Army's tank forces were now equipped with a small number of KV-85 heavy tanks that were enough to fight Tiger tanks, and the number of T-34/57s was increasing, and they had already formed a scale.

The Soviets also borrowed the idea of ​​Germany using tank chassis to produce turretless assault guns/tank destroyers, and in late 1942 and early 1943, they produced two powerful self-propelled artillery, SU-122 and SU-85.

After the thawing of the port of Vladivostok, the Americans transported 500 M4 medium tanks, 500 M10 tank destroyers, 300 M7 self-propelled artillery and tens of thousands of various models of cars to the Soviet Union through the North Pacific route. Now all these American-aided weapons and equipment have arrived in Moscow and distributed to several newly built tank armies.

However, the Red Army has not become stronger in all aspects than before June 1942, and the strength of the Red Air Force is now a bit weak.

Because after the muddy season last autumn, the battle between the German Air Force and the Red Air Force is still going on fiercely. In addition, the German Air Force also adopted the "fuel tank tactics" on the Eastern Front, using the long range and excellent low-altitude maneuverability and ground attack capabilities of the Fokker Zero D series to severely repair the "short-legged" Soviet fighters. The Soviet Red Air Force suffered heavy losses in the past few months and lost a large number of excellent pilots.

However, Stalin still believed that the Red Army was strong enough to defend the enemy outside the country, so there was no need to take actions in Moscow that might shake the people's hearts. For example, mobilizing millions of people to dig trenches and repair trenches outside the city... This almost admitted that Moscow would be attacked and the Red Army was retreating on the front line!

"And we should also defend the Dnieper River line," Stalin then mentioned the Ukrainian battlefield, "Comrade Pavlov, I noticed that you mentioned deep defense, I think you know what this means?"

"Comrade General Secretary, this..." Pavlov gritted his teeth and said, "Our strength may not be enough to defend the Dnieper River, we need to exchange space for defense..."

"Defend where?" Stalin seemed very unhappy, "Are we going to fight the Germans in the Donetsk industrial area and Kharkov? Is that the place to fight? If Kharkov and Donetsk fall or are bombed to the ground by artillery, how much steel, coal, and electricity will we lose... Do you know this?"