The Rise of the Third Reich

"Comrade Chief of General Staff, Commander Fedyuninsky sent a telegram that a large number of German tanks were discovered in the Lyuban area southwest of Leningrad. He feels that the German army is likely to launch an attack..."

"Attack?" Zhukov took a breath, "How many tanks were discovered? Where is our tank army currently?"

Lieutenant General Kokopev, Chief of Operations of the General Staff of the Red Army, replied: "According to the reconnaissance of the guerrillas and the air force, the German armored units that appeared in the Lyuban area should be at the group army level. And our army's 4th Tank Army and 6th Tank Army They are currently on standby near the city of Veliky Novgorod and can be maneuvered at any time.”

The Soviet Red Army tank unit that lost the Battle of the Junction suffered heavy losses. Together with the tanks/assault artillery lost on various battlefields on the Eastern Front, the number was almost over 6,000!

Moreover, the city of Kharkiv, one of the four major tank manufacturing centers in the Soviet Union, has also been attacked by the German army, and the factories in the city are being relocated urgently. The Kirov factory in Leningrad basically stopped production after Leningrad was besieged last year. So now two of the four major tank manufacturing centers in the Soviet Union are temporarily paralyzed. The production of tanks/assault artillery has been significantly reduced, and the rate of replenishment has also been slowed down.

In addition, it is not enough to have a tank without a tank crew and technicians to repair the tank. Soviet tanks are difficult to control (you have to be a racing driver to drive them well), and there are many faults, requiring high-level technicians to repair them. Replenishing the lost crews and machinery in a short period of time is probably even more difficult than replenishing tanks.

So I really don’t know when the losses of more than 6,000 tanks/assault artillery will be made up? The Supreme Command of the Soviet Red Army now also tastes the lack of tank troops!

In order to fight the Fourth Battle of Leningrad, the Supreme Command had to piece together a lot of things to create a 6th Tank Army for the Kalinin Front, and at the same time, it also supplemented the 4th Tank Army.

The two armies now have about 1,700 tanks/assault artillery. According to German standards, they are almost an "army-level" armored cluster.

However, after the Battle of the Junction, everyone in the Soviet army knew the fact that the Soviet tank force was far from the opponent of the German armored force!

Moreover, not many JS-2 heavy tanks, which Zhukov has high hopes for, have been built, so it is impossible for them to go into battle.

After listening to Kokopev's report, Zhukov's face was uncertain and thoughtful. After a long while, he asked Marshal Pavlov: "What do you think of this battle?"

Marshal Pavlov is now the First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense. In theory, he is Zhukov's superior (most of the level), but in actual work, he is unknowingly influenced by Zhukov, as if he has become Zhukov's chief of staff. .

Hearing Zhukov's inquiry, he replied thoughtfully: "The Germans cannot be allowed to attack first... Now, except for the Leningrad siege front, neither side has a complete front, so whoever concentrates the armored forces first to attack will be the first."

Zhukov nodded. He and Pavlov had the same view on this issue... But Stalin had to wait for Leningrad to complete its rectification and the new JS-2 tanks to form combat effectiveness, which resulted in a delay of some time. Otherwise, the Kalinin Front would probably have started attacking by now.

"It's still too late!" Pavlov said, "We can let the 4th Tank Army and the 6th Tank Army attack immediately to attack the city of Pskov."

Zhukov shook his head. Pavlov's suggestion made him look down upon the old man.

If you lose the first move, you lose it. You can't get it back by chasing!

If we follow Pavlov's method to attack the city of Pskov, there will be more than 200 kilometers on the road. We will definitely not be able to walk during the day, otherwise the tank cluster will not be able to reach the place and will be blown up by German planes. And if you want to travel day and night, you need to walk at least two nights. You will be on the road tonight and tomorrow night. The fastest we can attack is the day after tomorrow. By then, the Germans will have rushed into Kalinin Oblast. What else are you going to fight?

"It's too late," Zhukov said softly, "We must abandon the active attack plan and switch to mobile defense."

"Mobile defense? How to defend?" Pavlov asked.

Zhukov has been thinking about this issue since his failure in the Battle of Gomel. The biggest problem in the Battle of Gomel was actually that the Soviet tank troops could not defeat the German armored clusters.

If you force yourself to attack when you can't defeat them, the losses will of course be heavy!

However, the Battle of Collective Farm No. 13 that occurred at the same time showed that the Soviet tank group could still withstand the superior strength of the German army in defensive operations. In this battle, the Soviet 5th Tank Army withstood the opponent's fierce attack for more than 20 days. In the end, although the entire army was wiped out, even the commander, General Lu Jin, was taken prisoner.

But the value of this battle is still huge. It taught Red Army commanders like Zhukov how to use tank groups for rapid maneuvers and then engage in defensive operations in the most critical areas.

"Tonight, let the 4th Tank Army and the 18th Army go to Maverick Vishela to set up defenses," Zhukov thought for a while and then said, "The two armies should form a composite group under unified command, with the tank brigade and the mechanized brigade as the two groups. The core is to lay out the defense line.”

The 18th Army was originally attached to the Southwest Front and participated in the fierce fighting in Ukraine on the right bank in the winter of 1942. When the Soviet-German war resumed in May 1943, the army was reorganizing near Moscow. It was recently replenished and transferred to the Kalinin Front.

The 18th Group Army is the so-called "synthetic group army", which is a mobile group that combines motorized infantry, cavalry, mechanized troops and motorized artillery. It has the same nature as the five assault armies and can all maneuver with the tank group. fighting troops.

In the later stages of the "Battle of the Junction", the Soviet military command department had realized the value of this coordinated operation of the combined army and the tank army in the strategic defense stage, and therefore became a key development target.

According to Zhukov's thinking, because the Soviet-German battlefield was too vast, it was impossible for the Red Army to form a long and solid defense line. Only highly motorized synthetic swarms can be used to conduct defense-focused operations in the wild without solid fortifications - this style of play is called "mobile defense" by Zhukov. Although it cannot guarantee victory, it can at least obtain a relatively ideal result. Exchange ratio.

Zhukov thought for a moment and then said: "The 6th Tank Army will continue to be on standby in the Veliky Novgorod area. After the 4th Tank Army and the 18th Army have fully exhausted the German armored groups, they will launch a counterattack."

"So should the left wing of the Kalinin Front retreat?" Pavlov asked again about the left wing of the Kalinin Front at this time, which was also the question of where the troops between Leningrad and Veliky Luki were going.

According to the original plan, these troops were supposed to be used for an assault in the Baltic States. Now that the Germans were going to strike first, there was naturally no need for such a bluff assault.

"Cannot withdraw." Zhukov shook his head. "Someone must stop there, otherwise the German armored forces on the Smolensk front line will easily go north to Pskov, or even enter the battlefield near Leningrad..."

"Enter the battlefield near Leningrad?" Pavlov frowned deeply, "Are you worried that they will besiege Leningrad again?"

"Yes!" Zhukov nodded, "If the Kalinin Front is defeated, the Germans will probably besiege Leningrad again... Our second capital of the Soviet Union is a huge bargaining chip for peace! Moreover, it cannot be done now. Rule out the possibility that the German army really wants to capture Leningrad.

Therefore, Leningrad must also be prepared to be surrounded and defend the city again! "

…

The instructions from the High Command of the Red Army soon caused a chain reaction in the city of Leningrad - Kaminsky, an old revolutionary who joined the Red Army in 1918, was promoted from captain deputy battalion commander to major battalion commander, and his Friend and superior Voskoponiko became the commander of the 644th Infantry Regiment and remained Kaminsky's superior.

The 344th Infantry Regiment belongs to the newly formed 347th Infantry Division, which was formed on the basis of Leningrad anti-GM family soldiers, Siberian labor reform soldiers and a small amount of the original regular army. There are a total of three infantry regiments under its jurisdiction, two of which are a mixture of Leningrad anti-GM family soldiers and Siberian reform-through-labor soldiers, and the other is a regular Red Army army from other places.

Of course, both the Leningrad anti-GM family soldiers and the Siberian reform-through-labor soldiers were organizationally the Red Army of workers and peasants led by the Bolshevik Party. Like the troops with the title of Guards, they are all revolutionary armies with party branches to companies, and political deputies (grassroots political workers).

In addition, in addition to unreliable units like the 347th Division (there are 30 such divisions in Leningrad), there are 15 more reliable divisions in Leningrad, including the 1st, 20th, and 21st , 22nd and 23rd five interior guard infantry divisions.

The so-called NKVD is an infantry division composed of members of the Border Guard Force, Internal Security Forces and other units controlled by the NKVD (there were hundreds of thousands before the outbreak of the war). It is a particularly loyal and reliable force. There are some in each front army, and they are usually deployed 10-20 kilometers behind the front-line combat troops to serve as reserve teams and combat supervisory teams.

In Leningrad, five internal guard infantry divisions guard the core area of ​​the city. On their periphery are 10 ordinary Red Army infantry divisions (neither Leningraders nor from Siberia), defending most of the urban area of ​​Leningrad.

As for those who stick to the periphery of Leningrad, of course they are "unreliable troops" like the 347th Division of the Red Army.