Iron Cross

In front of the large desk, the commander of the Caucasus Front and the Red Army general Ivan Vladimirovich Tyulenev put down the intelligence file in his hand with a frown, rubbed his temples vigorously, and seriously thought about the current situation and the war. Come. As one of only five generals before the outbreak of the war, he had profound qualifications. During the civil war, as an outstanding general with a cavalry background, he not only performed outstandingly on the battlefield, but was also particularly stable politically - he belonged to the Semyon-Budionny system and was always regarded by Comrade Stalin as his own and his own. His confidant is one of the models who is politically reliable, has a strong work style, and works hard. No matter how the wind of the Great Purge blows, it never blows on him.

In addition, Tyulenev has another very good thing. Probably because of his background as a cavalry general and his free and easy personality. He gets along very well with many senior officers. He is very popular, has a good temper, and has a very good character. It is well-known by everyone - even at a time when everyone was in danger like the Great Purge, he was unwilling to do anything to add insult to injury, and even protected a large number of his subordinates to the best of his ability. Based on this characteristic, Comrade Stalin valued him very much and promoted him to the most important commander of the Moscow Military District on the eve of the war.

Of course, Tyulenev's shortcomings are also relatively obvious: he has always stayed in an obscure position. Although he has a high level and a prominent position, his commanding ability does not seem to be commensurate with his military rank. As a cavalry general, His overall command ideas and ideas were generally still in the civil war period and could not keep up with the evolution of mechanized warfare. In the eyes of many observers, he and Tukhachevsky were two completely opposite models. Fortunately, he was not as confused and rigid as Budyonny. He was still eager to learn the essence of armored warfare, so he stumbled into the threshold of modern warfare. However, even he himself admitted that no matter with Zhukov, Vasilevsky or Compared with Vatutin, Konev, Rokossovsky and others, his command level is slightly inferior.

Stalin himself and the General Staff of the Red Army generally knew some of the facts and often assigned him to secondary battlefields. This was both a kind of care and a kind of protection. Facts have proved that he did a pretty good job on the secondary battlefield. At least he conscientiously completed the tasks assigned to him without causing trouble. There are not many such senior generals in the Red Army.

Due to the special changes at the turn of summer and autumn, the Transcaucasus Front, the North Caucasus Front, and the South Caucasus Front that should have appeared in history were not established. Only the designation of the Caucasus Front has been retained. As the top leader of the Caucasus Front, his subordinates have a total of There are 6 army groups, 2 flight groups, and 3 independent armies, with more than 800,000 troops. The German Kleist Group confronting him probably has nearly 500,000 troops. During the war at the turn of summer and autumn, although the Caucasus, which was close to Rostov and was relatively flat and conducive to armored warfare and mobile warfare, was defeated by Kleist, Tyulenev still firmly held the positions in various areas of the Caucasus Mountains. The pass "thwarted" the German landing attempt on the Black Sea coast and saved most of its troops. I dare not say that this credit is compared with the excellent commander of the front army, but at least it is much better than the Voronezh front army.

Now he faced a new problem: Stalin and the General Staff ordered him to mobilize reliable troops to fight in Persia, and asked him to be alert to Turkish actions.

Originally, the pressure on Tyulenev was not so great. Stalin initially only requested to mobilize 50,000 troops from the Caucasus Front. He would also mobilize 100,000 troops from Central Asia and hand them over to reliable generals. However, under repeated requests from the British, , Moscow changed its decision and finally agreed to deploy 100,000 troops from the Caucasus Front and 50,000 troops from Central Asia - he changed from cooperating to leading, which made him feel many difficulties and huge problems.

Zhukov and Vasilevsky also disagreed on whether to consider replacing the commander of the Tyulenev Front. Zhukov, based on the war situation, hoped to transfer the more aggressive and aggressive Konev to the Caucasus. , and replaced Tyulenev to the currently calm Northwestern Front Army, but Vasilevsky believed that this kind of replacement could not be made. First of all, Tyulenev did a good job in this position, and there was nothing to fault. , and Konev has been causing trouble for the General Staff and Comrade Stalin; secondly, Tyulenev's personality and temper can unite his subordinates and properly handle the local nationalist sentiments in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the complex problems of Turkey, Persia, etc. The surrounding emotions, if the grumpy Konev comes in, may make these things a mess - of course the commander of the front army must understand military affairs, but military knowledge alone is not enough.

On this point, Voroshilov and Budyonny all hold similar opinions, and even Molotov is opposed to letting Konev take office - the attitude of the Turks is now very unstable, in case his fiery What should I do if my temper makes a Turk angry? Moreover, the Caucasus is a stable front, and the Red Army does not intend to fight here. Unless it really follows Comrade Stalin's idea of ​​forming a separate front army to fight in Persia, it is best to be prudent and cautious.

Zhukov was convinced. He no longer insisted on his views and instead asked Tyulenev to form a reliable army group to enter Persia.

Tyulenev completed the task quickly: in view of the complex ethnic forces and relatively rugged terrain in Turkey and Persia, he deliberately chose the 45th Army for reinforcement. The army initially had the 138th Mountain Infantry Division, the 31st and 136th Infantry Divisions, the 1st Mountain Cavalry Division, and the 55th Fortress Regional Division (reorganized into an artillery division after reinforcement). The 63rd and 76th Mountain Infantry Divisions, the 236th Infantry Division, and the 6th Tank Division were drawn from the 47th Army. The total force reached 6 infantry divisions, 1 cavalry division, 1 tank division and 1 artillery division, totaling 100,000 troops. However, there were only more than 100 tanks, and only more than 50 of the more advanced T-34s. The rest were either T-60 or T-70, and there were even 4 T-26s. For this reason, when submitting the compilation report to the General Staff, Qiulenev specifically pointed out that although the performance of T-60\\T-70\\T-26 in armored warfare is relatively poor, they can fully utilize their flexible and light characteristics in the rugged terrain of the Persian Plateau, so he believes that they can basically meet the needs.

In addition to asking the General Staff to add 200 aircraft and a batch of artillery shells to him, Qiulenev was very considerate of Moscow's difficulties and did not make more requests. This touched everyone, including Zhukov, but although he was touched, the request for 200 aircraft was not implemented in the end. He only cobbled together 70 aircraft and gave him more than 20 T-60s as compensation. Then he agreed with a big stroke that Lieutenant Mezhov would continue to serve as the commander of this strengthened army group, and the number was still the 45th Army Group, also known as the Persian Army Group.

In addition to personnel and organizational dispatch, Chulenev hurried to get the troops to march, while discussing the operational strategy with Lieutenant General Mezhov and others. Finally, it was determined that the goal of the Persian Army Group was not to drive out and eliminate the Germans in Persia and Iraq, but to use a proper and solid defense line to protect northern Persia and the Caucasus, give full play to the combat advantages of mountain infantry, and the core focus was to protect the Baku oil field.

After arranging all this, Chulenev also specially sent the Chief of Staff to the General Staff to report the situation, and reported the operational goals and principles, general deployment and defense points to the General Staff. At the same time, he also told Zhukov and others that he had arranged an additional 50,000 to 70,000 reserve troops in the back. The whole plan was careful and meticulous, and everything that should be considered was considered. No one in the headquarters had much objection, and even Zhukov could not find any faults - he believed that the goal of this plan was very calm and sober, indicating that the commander of the front and the commander of the army group had thought carefully, and it was not a product of hot-headedness or snapping.

Zhukov privately said to Vasilevsky: "After all, he is the commander personally selected by Comrade Stalin. He is mature and respectful and considerate of his superiors. He is much better than some commanders who act recklessly and lose their temper with their leaders at the slightest disagreement."

Vasilevsky just smiled and said nothing more - which leader doesn't like such a subordinate?

In order to express the importance and appeasement of the Caucasus direction, the headquarters vowed: once spring comes, it will definitely draw heavy troops from the Don River front to the south to strive for a breakthrough in the Middle East battlefield.

The Red Army's attitude is now reversed. In the past, it was looking forward to the early arrival of winter, but now it is looking forward to the early end of winter. The battle on the Don River front has not been going smoothly. It is impossible to advance or retreat. The three fronts have no progress but can only hold on there. Once spring comes, the situation will be easier. The ground will thaw, the Don River will flow again, and the roads will be rugged and difficult to travel. The fast and flexible characteristics of the German mechanized forces cannot be brought into play, which is very conducive to the adjustment of the Red Army's big step back. Now is the time when the land is as hard as iron, which is very convenient for the German armored forces to move.

Moreover, the Russians were shocked to find that this winter was different from the previous one. Various German vehicles were not unusable due to the cold, which was beyond their expectations. How could they know that in order to prevent this situation from happening again, German chemists have invested a lot of energy in studying the formula of lubricants and antifreeze under extreme cold conditions since the beginning of 1942. Since September, the Eastern Front Quartermaster Department has continuously sent improved lubricants, antifreeze and other cold-resistant materials to the front line. In addition, Germany has completely controlled the transportation channels of the Black Sea, and the logistics support of the Southern Army Group is the best. So Manstein is not afraid of the winter war now.