The Rise of the Third Reich

"What? The Western Front Army and the Reserve Front Army are going to be merged into the Central Front Army?"

"So we are going to join the Battle of Smolensk?"

The deputy commander of the Reserve Front, General Chuikov, and the chief of staff, Major General Shevchenko, were shocked by the news that Yereomenko had brought them back. They did not think that Smolensk could be held... and Pavlov, Zhukov, Shaposhnikov and others had the same view, and their analysis of the war situation was also very pessimistic.

In their opinion, the Battle of Smolensk was lost! And the second Leningrad relief operation may still be able to win. As for the Battle of the Joint Base, which Stalin had high hopes for, it would probably be lost. The question is just how much.

Therefore, what the reserve front army must strive for now is to set up defenses outside Moscow as soon as possible to prepare to resist the German attack!

As long as Moscow can hold on and the Leningrad relief operation can achieve certain results, then the Soviet Union can drag the war to 1944... By then, Japan will most likely have been defeated by the United States, and the Soviet Union will be saved. .

However, contrary to their expectations, their boss, General Yeremenko, took over the task of rescuing Smolensk.

"But we can't save Smolensk." Chuikov shook his head repeatedly. "The Germans will soon complete the outflank of Smolensk. How can we break this encirclement? We don't have a tank army..."

"Comrade Commander," Major General Shevchenko asked, "does the Supreme High Command have any plans?"

"There is no plan," General Yeremenko shook his head. "We can fight however we want. Comrade Stalin completely trusts us!"

Shevchenko sighed inwardly, does that mean Stalin trusts him? That means neither Pavlov nor Shaposhnikov has done anything.

"Then Marshal Kulik..."

"He was dismissed from his post," General Yeremenko said. "Comrade Stalin is very angry. Marshal Kulik will probably be in trouble."

"So... who will be responsible for the defense of Smolensk?" Chuikov asked in a low voice.

He was very afraid that Yeremenkov had assigned him this doomed job - he was the deputy commander, and if the front army was to establish a headquarters to command several armies, then he should be the one to do it.

"Comrade Chuikov, do you have a suitable candidate?" Yeremenkov asked casually.

"I recommend General Yefremov." Chuikov said, "He is the current deputy commander of the Western Front and knows the situation in Smolensk very well."

In fact, General Yefremov did not understand the situation in Smolensk, because he is now the commander-in-chief of Minsk.

"Okay, then let Comrade Yefremov go to Smolensk." Yeremenkov thought for a while and then said, "I will order Comrade Yefremov to hold on as much as possible...at least to hold on 15 days, and we will launch a counterattack within 7 days, and we must repel the enemy from Smolensk no matter what!”

General Chuikov and Chief of Staff Major General Shevchenko looked at each other. This was simply a mission that could not be completed no matter what!

…

"Comrade General Secretary..." Now it was time for the First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense to report the battlefield situation to Stalin. Marshal Pavlov stood in front of a huge map and pointed on it with a baton.

“On the current battlefield on the Western Front, there are four large-scale battles going on at the same time.” Pavlov said, “The first is the Battle of the Junction; the second is the Defense of Smolensk; and the third is Velikiy Luki-Leningrad. Battle; the fourth is the defense of Minsk. Among them, the Bryansk Front is responsible for the Battle of the Junction, the Central Front is responsible for the Smolensk Battle, and the Kalinin Front and the Leningrad Front are responsible for the Velikiy Luki-Leningrad Battle; as for the Minsk Battle, the Bryansk Front is responsible for the battle. For the defense of Sksk... I suggest setting up a separate army to take charge.”

Minsk is obviously an isolated city, and the situation is similar to Warsaw. If a separate front army is established, it will be ugly when the entire army is wiped out.

"Who will be the commander of the Minsk Army?" Stalin asked, "Do you have a suitable candidate?"

"Comrade Yeremenkov, commander of the Central Front, recommended Comrade Yevremov, who is currently serving as the commander-in-chief in Minsk, to serve as the commander-in-chief of the defense of Smolensk," Shaposhnikov took the question, "So The General Staff recommends Comrade Bagramyan, commander of the 4th Army, to serve as commander of the Minsk Army.”

Bagramyan's 4th Army was sent out by the Supreme Command to delay the German 3rd Armored Army a few days ago. However, this task ended prematurely because the German 3rd Armored Army occupied Borisov before it even started. Comrade Bagramyan is still safe and sound in Minsk.

"Okay, Comrade Bagramyan will definitely complete the task of holding Minsk well." Stalin nodded, agreed with the candidates recommended by Shaposhnikov, and did not mention the matter of letting the 4th Army go out of the city to die. .

"How is the Battle of the Junction going?" Stalin then shifted the topic to the Battle of the Junction. In his opinion, as long as the Red Army can win this battle, everything will be alive.

"The 1st and 2nd Tank Armies will arrive near Gomel on the 9th, but... Gomel has now fallen." Pavlov replied, "In addition, the 5th Tank Army has already arrived in Smolensk Near Roslavl in the southern part of the state.”

"So where are the German armored groups on the southern route?" Stalin asked, "Where are they?"

"One unit broke into the Chernihiv region to the south, and the other unit to the north occupied Cherikov, Klimovich and Kosdyukovitch yesterday."

"Divided the troops?" Stalin looked at the two black arrows one south and one north on the map and shook his head, "What do the Germans want to do?"

"Maybe they want to join up with their two armored groups on the north and middle roads, and at the same time rush to cross the Desna River and open a channel to go south and outflank the Southwest Front." Pavlov tried to explain the actions of the German army.

He said: "The Germans may want to complete the three goals of landing in Leningrad, approaching Moscow and encircling our Southwest Front at the same time."

Have such a big appetite?

Stalin took a breath and thought: "This is the destruction of the Soviet Union! The fox's tail of Hessman, the great reactionary, has finally been revealed!"

"We must smash the conspiracy of the German Nazis!" Stalin's face became extremely gloomy. "The Battle of the Junction must be carried out as soon as possible, and it must be won! In addition, the Southwest Front was instructed to send the 3rd Tank Army to reinforce Cherny Goff, to cooperate with the Bryansk Front’s operations at the junction!”

Feeling that the problem was serious, Stalin once again upped the ante and increased the number of tank armies used in the Junction Battle to four!

However, at this time, the Soviet opponent in the Battle of the Junction, General Mackensen, commander of the German 1st Armored Army, did not know that his army had attracted four Soviet tank armies. Because the troops he sent east, north and west have not yet encountered large groups of Soviet tank troops.

In the afternoon of May 7, the entire 1st Armored Army thought that they had stepped on an empty door this time and were waiting for the good news of the victory of the war in a leisurely outing-like combat operation.

Lyudmila Mikhailovna Pavlyuchenko, a female sniper who graduated from the National University of Kiev, is an honorary sergeant (although she participated in the battle, the conservative German Wehrmacht did not recognize her status as a soldier and only gave her She was officially recognized as a "female assistant of the Wehrmacht", so her military rank was honorary), and she was leisurely spending time with her comrades from the 14th SS Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion (affiliated to the 14th SS Ukrainian Cavalry Division). marching on the land bordering Belarus and Russia.

Although the 14th SS Cavalry Reconnaissance Battalion where she belonged was called a cavalry, it was not a cavalry in the traditional sense, but a special unit composed of armored and cavalry soldiers.

The battalion has three half-cavalry and half-armored reconnaissance companies. Each company has an armored vehicle platoon, equipped with Sdkfz234/2 and Sdkfz222 series wheeled armored vehicles. The former is the famous Puma armored vehicle, equipped with a 50mm/L60 gun.

In theory, this cannon can penetrate the frontal armor of a T-34 tank at a distance of 600 meters when using tungsten steel armor-piercing projectiles!

In addition to being equipped with Sdkfz234/2 armored vehicles, this Ukrainian SS cavalry division, which has gained fame in Lviv and Kiev, is also equipped with the Sdkfz234/3 wheeled assault gun (which has a short-barreled 75mm gun) and a Sdkfz234/4 wheeled anti-tank destroyer equipped with 4 cannons.

Therefore, this Ukrainian cavalry division can be used as a light armored division! Since the units under the German 1st Armored Army have quite a few decent armored divisions and panzergrenadier divisions, "lightly armored divisions" such as the 17th SS Ukrainian Cavalry Division can only engage in firepower Scouting or something.

However, Honorary Sergeant Pavlyuchenko and the soldiers in her sniper squad, who were riding behind a Cougar at this time, had no problem with not being able to defeat the main force.

Because in their opinion, the Ukrainian war is almost over - Ukrainians have shed too much blood in Lviv, on the battlefields of Right Bank Ukraine! At least 500,000 people died in the war (not all soldiers), and a large number of people were seriously injured or missing.

Moreover, the territory of the former Polish Ukrainian state has now been recovered, and the fertile black land has returned to the hands of Ukrainian farmers. If we continue to fight, it doesn’t seem to make much sense anymore…