Iron Cross

An hour later, Stalin summoned Zhukov and Vasilevsky again. Compared with the angry situation just now, his overall mental state has improved greatly. Comrade Stalin, who is omnipotent and has everything under control, is back. .

"Let me tell you some good news first. Comrade Molotov called and said that the supplies provided by the United States from the Pacific have arrived. The total amount is close to 400,000 tons, including 100,000 tons of fuel and 100,000 tons of urgently needed supplies. Armored steel, aluminum ingots, copper and other materials, including more than 200 P-39 aircraft, more than 250 Sherman tanks, more than 4,000 trucks, jeeps and other vehicles of various types, as well as a large number of grain and canned meat Waiting for supplies..." Stalin told his two men energetically, "The Americans are extremely indignant at Turkey's treacherous behavior and apologize to us. They said they would freeze all Turkish assets in Britain and the United States. At the same time, they will freeze them in the middle of next month. Another batch of supplies will be provided, and the quantity will be between 400,000 and 500,000 tons.”

"The Americans were very generous this time."

"On the one hand, the supplies promised several times before have not been provided to us, and on the other hand, because the main Japanese fleet is in Europe and the Far East is quite empty, the Americans organized a transport fleet of more than 30 ships." Stalin waved. Waving his hand, "Although we cannot place our hopes of victory on the Americans, at least these materials can help us a lot now. I asked Comrade Molotov to ask the Americans to find ways to increase aid in refined oil products - these difficulties are It was caused by Turkey’s sneak attack; Comrade Voroshilov has been coordinating with the Far East to transport supplies as soon as possible.”

Zhukov and Vasilevsky looked at each other and breathed a sigh of relief.

"I have thought about it carefully just now, and I think your ideas are very reasonable and constructive, but..." Stalin made an unexpected turn, "We cannot passively deal with the Germans' next move like this, we must take more measures. Positive attitude.”

"You mean?"

"The Germans and Turks cannot be allowed to encircle the Caucasus Front, let alone attack the three Fronts in the Don River area. The Red Army should take decisive measures to disrupt the enemy's rhythm."

Zhukov frowned and asked, "Do you want to retreat early?"

"No! Attack!" Stalin waved his arms vigorously, matching and strengthening his tone, "Comrade Constantine, let's attack first!"

"What?" Vasilevsky almost screamed. Now in such an unfavorable situation, he still wants to attack. Is Comrade Stalin going crazy?

"This sounds a bit unrealistic, but I think it is a good way to catch people by surprise." Stalin explained his thoughts in front of the map. "You see, if we use the Persian Army Group and the Baku defenders to hold back the enemy's Middle East Army Group, , and at the same time deploy 100,000 troops from the Caucasus Front to block the passes and key points in the Caucasus Mountains, we can use this time to gain a relatively long period of time to launch an attack first - the target is the enemy's southern army group. Kleist Cluster. I plan to detach two of the three front armies currently facing Manstein and add other troops of the Caucasus Front to attack first. In this way, the total force that can be mobilized will exceed 1 million, which can defeat the enemy. The Leicester cluster has formed a significant advantage, even if it cannot eliminate this heavy group in one fell swoop, it can at least force it to retreat, and then our army can shrink back northward..."

Zhukov patiently listened to the other party's overall thinking and did not rush to deny or express different opinions. Instead, he fell into deep thought. In fact, although he has not communicated this idea with Vasilevsky, he has actually considered it. In theory, he is more positive and proactive. In practice, there are many difficulties in implementation:

First of all, he had no idea how long the 170,000 troops in the Transcaucasus could resist the Turks and Rommel;

Secondly, it is not impossible for the Caucasus Front to deploy 100,000 troops to defend the pass, but under attack from both sides, I am afraid it will not be as easy to defend as in the summer;

Again, he only planned to deploy one front army to join forces with the Caucasus Front to flank the Kleist cluster and force the enemy to retreat. Stalin was more extreme than him and planned to deploy two front armies. This would of course give him greater confidence in dealing with Kleist, but in the face of The pressure on Manstein's front was too great.

Finally, even if everything goes smoothly and the battle plan is completed, the final position of the defense line after the two sides break away from large-scale contact needs to be carefully considered and cannot simply be withdrawn.

Of course, he could understand what Stalin meant. Since the 170,000 troops in the Transcaucasus were destined to lose most of them, he might as well not bother to rescue them, but let them play a more active role and value, even if they had to rely on troops from the Caucasus to do so. The 100,000 troops mobilized from this direction - use these baits and abandonments to attract the enemy, and exchange their final collapse for the basic stability of the southern flank of the entire front.

"Comrade Stalin, I understand what you mean, but there are two points that need to be reconsidered. First, we cannot position the campaign to destroy the enemy Kleist Group. It seems more appropriate to repel it instead; second, we cannot position the campaign to destroy the enemy Kleist Group. , the action of deploying two front armies may be too radical, and the remaining front armies may not be able to withstand Manstein. Should we instead transfer one front army and strengthen it separately. "

Hearing that Zhukov did not deny his opinions in principle, but proposed major revisions, Stalin hesitated and asked after a moment: "Why?"

"You want to use 270,000 troops to hold back the enemy in order to create an opportunity to encircle and annihilate Kleist's 400,000 troops. This is very uncertain. Since the enemy is better equipped and has more people than us, it is very likely that the enemy will not collapse before our 270,000 troops collapse, and all our efforts will be wasted."

Stalin nodded. He could understand Zhukov's subtext: 270,000 troops are not only less than 400,000 in number, but also not as good as the opponent in quality. To explain in Go terms, when both sides are tightening their qi at the same time, the Red Army is the side with less qi.

"What do you plan to do with the second one?"

"Draw the Stalingrad Front, and then draw 50,000 troops from Central Asia, assign all the 200,000 reserves directly under the headquarters to him, strengthen the front's strength to more than 650,000, and launch an attack together with the Caucasus Front. In this way, we can gather about 900,000-950,000 troops and form an advantage over the enemy." Zhukov paused, "As for the reserves directly under the headquarters, after the troops are exhausted, draw 150,000 troops and 50,000 new soldiers from the Moscow direction to reorganize."

"I agree with your idea. Draw 100,000 from the Steppe Military Region to strengthen the Stalingrad Front and ensure more than 1 million troops." Stalin gritted his teeth and said, "We must form a local advantage."

"The General Staff will immediately re-plan around this plan, which will take about two days."

"Okay." Stalin said generously, "I'll give you three days. I will let the troops in Transcaucasus stabilize their defense. Anyway, even if they want to retreat, they must wait for the inland fleet, and they may not be able to organize the fleet in three days."

Just one minute after leaving Stalin's office, Vasilevsky began to complain to Zhukov: "How can you just agree to Comrade Stalin? This is obviously a very dangerous thing. It is understood that the Turkish troops are no less than 500,000, and the Germans and Iranians are more than 100,000. It is a miracle that the 170,000 troops in Mezhov and Baku can hold out for ten days. How can we pin our hopes on them? ? "

"Who else can we rely on if not them?" Zhukov sighed, "According to my idea, the three Don Fronts should have retreated long ago, but Comrade Stalin was afraid of losses and was reluctant to issue the order to retreat. He always wanted to wait until spring came, the roads thawed, and the enemy's mechanized forces lost their advantage before we could retreat leisurely. Now it's good..."

"Then you still cater to his offensive proposal?" Vasilevsky looked around and saw that there was no one around, and said in a low voice, "If we retreat according to my plan, we would lose 150,000 to 200,000 people at most. According to his plan, we might lose 700,000 to 800,000 people."

"According to your plan, how many people will the Germans lose?"

"10,000 to 20,000, maybe another 10,000 Turks. "

"According to his plan?"

"This..." Vasilevsky hesitated for a moment and said, "The enemy may lose 200,000 to 250,000."

"It's about the same as I estimated." Zhukov took a deep breath, "Now the situation is very clear, the focus has become whether it is worthwhile for us to pay an extra 500,000 in exchange for the enemy's additional loss of 200,000. What do you think?"

"I..." Vasilevsky couldn't answer this question, and stamped his feet angrily, "People who die can never live again."

Zhukov was also silent: In Stalin's eyes, if a price must be paid for victory, let alone 500,000 for 200,000, even if he took 1 million for 200,000, he might not frown.

"Moreover, not only will there be casualties, but there will also be huge losses of aircraft and tanks, at least in the thousands."

After a long while, Zhukov said slowly: "It would be better if they were all destroyed. Then we won't have to worry about their large numbers."

"You!" Vasilevsky stopped and glared at Zhukov.

"Baku is lost. How many of these tanks and aircraft do you think will be operational by autumn? If the current number is still there, Comrade Stalin will definitely take away all the heating oil and use it on tanks..." Zhukov closed his eyes and said sadly, "By then, it won't be as simple as 500,000 deaths. It may be 1.5 million or 5 million deaths..."

Vasilevsky was speechless and couldn't say a word, because he knew that in the case of oil shortage, the scene described by Zhukov was very likely to occur. When he thought of this chilling consequence, he felt that all the hairs on his back stood up.