Iron Cross

The landing of the Middle East Group Army was like a heavy weight that suddenly pressed on the already shaky balance, instantly breaking the fragile balance and shaking the entire Caucasus front.

Although Tyulenev urgently dispatched reinforcements, including the 15th Cavalry Corps, to try to plug the gap, he obviously did not know how many people landed on the German army, let alone what kind of troops they were. After landing, Rommel boldly The ground troops were divided into two groups: one group, with the Viking Division as the main force, swept toward the Kerch Peninsula on the left to open up the connection with the Kleist Group; the other group, with the Grossdeutschland Division as the main force, moved toward the passes of the Caucasus on the right to outflank the Red Army's rear route, opening up the connection with the Kleist Group. Turkish connection.

On the afternoon of April 6, the leading troops of the Viking Division had contacted the 22nd Armored Division of the First Armored Group in the Kleist Cluster. The two sides surrounded a total of 5 incomplete Red Army infantry divisions, 2 cavalry divisions and 2 The artillery division had a total of nearly 40,000 troops; and the fast and fierce attack of the right-wing Grossdeutschland Division directly cut off the retreat of the defenders at the Caucasus passes. The inspired Turks launched a general offensive across the board, although the fierce fighting continued until April. 10 days later, but now it can be seen that these more than 70,000 Red Army troops have no way out. At the same time, the main force of the Turkish army attacking from the Baku front line, led by Bock, bypassed the eastern section of the Caucasus Mountains and launched an attack on Grozny, more than 500 kilometers away.

In the Stalingrad headquarters, everyone frowned and said nothing as they watched the German army's extending offensive arrows. After the German army successfully landed in Sochi, the Caucasus Front was completely in chaos. Tyulenev was undecided on the three methods of "counterattack, retreat, and holding on to the spot": he himself wanted to counterattack, but he proposed to have two tank armies. The request was rejected by Zhukov on the spot, because it was impossible to mobilize so many troops now, and even if there were any, it would be too late to rush to the front line; the troops in trouble sent telegrams to the front army headquarters to retreat, but because their retreat was cut off, they were trapped in a tight siege; Stalin's stern orders came from Moscow, requiring them to hold on to the end and buy time for the defense of Stalingrad - which meant a large loss of troops.

By the evening of April 6, the situation had become very obvious. The Kleist Group, which had been stationary for several months, was ready to attack. The sharpest spearhead was the First Armored Group Army, which had made many contributions. The flank threat was eliminated - the left wing was covered by the rapidly advancing Manstein cluster, and the enemy troops on the right wing had been eliminated. It was possible to launch a deep attack without any worries. Compared with the later stage of Operation Blue, General Kleist not only received enough fuel and supplies, but after the reinforcement was completed, the number of tank troops was fully half that of the original - all of which were superior No. 4 H tanks. What made him even more overjoyed was that he even received an additional 509 heavy armor battalion.

"If the main force of the Caucasus Front does not retreat, Comrade Tyulenev will fall into a three-sided attack by the Kleist Group, Rommel Group Army and the Turks." Vasilevsky carefully looked at the map and the current situation between the enemy and ourselves. Although The situation reported by all parties was very confusing, but he still grasped the main situation. After sighing, he said, "The 100,000 troops along the Caucasus cannot be saved. The most important thing now is to retain the other 300,000 troops on the front. "

"What do you want to do?"

"To retreat to the Astrakhan front line, at least the main forces of the 44th, 46th, and 47th Group Armies must be retained, and the remaining troops will resist on the spot to delay the Axis Army's attack."

"Abandon Grozny?" Zhukov asked in an uncertain tone.

"We can only give up and arrange for troops to blow up the relevant facilities today."

Rokossovsky, who had been listening in, shook his head repeatedly. He had no particularly clever method. After the General Staff transferred Chuikov's 62nd Army to him and joined the defense of Stalingrad, the front finally stabilized. He was The pressure is not too great.

Zhukov sighed slightly and no longer struggled with the matter of Grozny - after the fall of Baku, the total crude oil production in the Soviet Union plummeted to less than 12 million tons per year, and Grozny is a very important oil-producing area among the remaining oil fields, which can be supplied in one year. With nearly 3 million tons of crude oil, losing this area means that the Soviet Union’s crude oil production will fall within 10 million tons. From a military perspective, Vasilevsky was completely reasonable, but he believed that the matter was not that simple and that Comrade Stalin would have other ideas.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, the staff brought a telegram from Moscow. Zhukov glanced at it and his face turned ugly: Stalin agreed in principle to the retreat of the Caucasus Front, but hoped to hold on to Grozny for 2-3 weeks in order to dismantle the relevant oil production facilities. Go to the Ural region. This requirement cannot be miscalculated, because if we want to expand the output of the Ural region, we must have sufficient facilities and equipment, and demolition is the most effective way.

"But we can't do this." Vasilevsky said immediately, "The enemy has not yet attacked on a large scale, and there is still a glimmer of hope for a timely retreat. If we delay 2-3 weeks in Grozny, I am afraid that the entire Caucasus Front will If we go in, we won’t lose any oil field facilities, but a lot of troops and equipment.”

"Just call Comrade Stalin back?"

"good!"

The staff officer turned around and was about to leave, but was stopped by Rokossovsky. He reminded the two of them in a slightly hesitant and tactful tone: "This...if you can't hold on for 2-3 weeks, can you consider holding on for only one week? We can’t just consider military issues, but also consider the political impact!”

Zhukov and Vasilevsky were shocked. In an instant, they understood what Rokossovsky meant: If Stalin was rejected so simply and flatly, Moscow might turn around and send a telegram to the Caucasus asking whether it could hold on. The front army, with Tyulenev's execution ability, will definitely answer that it can persist, but the result can only be counterproductive. From the latter's standpoint, this answer is quite normal - the war situation in the Caucasus is so rotten, someone must be responsible for it. Tyulenev is now the number one responsible person. If he doesn't "behave" harder, let alone Stalin and even the Ministry of Internal Affairs may not let him go.

Zhukov and Vasilevsky, who had come through strong winds and waves and were "time-tested", immediately agreed to Rokossovsky's suggestion, changed the persistence proposal to one week, and clearly designated the retreat direction of the Caucasus Front as Astor Lahan.

According to Zhukov's idea, after the front is stabilized, the Don Front will hold Stalingrad, the Caucasus Front will hold Astrakhan, and the Stalingrad Front will be responsible for connecting the two fronts. The Red Army can roughly maintain a continuous line bordered by the Volga River. Battle Line - Relatively speaking, this front is significantly reduced in length from the current front, helping to increase troop density. However, the above-mentioned adjustment is difficult to see on the map, which means that more than 300,000 square kilometers of land in the North Caucasus Plain will be forced to be abandoned. From the bottom of their hearts, the three senior Red Army generals are unwilling to give up any inch of territory, but the North Caucasus is an endless plain, which is very conducive to the advancement of the German mechanized troops. In the face of the enemy's superior armored troops, they want to gain ground on this plain. It is almost impossible to deal with the enemy.

After the three people reviewed it, they sent their idea to Moscow and copied it to Tyulenev, hoping that he could understand the implications of the telegram - at least be highly consistent with everyone else.

"Has the situation deteriorated to this extent? Not only can't Grozny be saved, but the entire Caucasus plain can't be saved?" Although Stalin's tone sounded calm, everyone who was summoned by him to attend the emergency meeting of the Supreme Command was still shudder.

Without Zhukov and Vasilevsky, it was Timoshenko, Voroshilov, Budyonny, Molotov and Kuznetsov who faced Stalin's wrath. Among them, Kuznetsov was the most helpless. A few months ago, after the Red Navy's Black Sea Fleet was almost destroyed, he kept reminding the Germans that they might launch a landing campaign and asked for targeted deployment of the front line. As a result, the Germans did not come for several months. , as time went by and the war on the front line became tense, those anti-landing troops and weapons gradually moved to other battlefields. Unexpectedly, the Germans suddenly came up with such a trick in Sochi.

Timoshenko did not dare to speak. He had lost Stalin's trust after the disastrous defeat in Kharkov last summer. Budyonny could not offer any advice at all. What did he, a general with a traditional cavalry background, know about armored warfare? But he agrees with Zhukov and Vasilevsky on a certain point. The Caucasus Plain is too big and the terrain is too flat. If the cavalry is still the best in the world, he can definitely beat the crap out of the Germans with his saber - it's a pity, the world has changed. Became a tank!

Voroshilov is in charge of the defense industry, and he certainly doesn’t want to retreat so quickly. In addition to Grozny’s crude oil, the Caucasus is also an important grain-producing area and half of the lower Volga River industrial zone, which can provide more than 3 million tons of grain and other products every year. Mineral resources, the war has continued until now, and the Soviet Union's grain output has dropped to less than 30 million tons. Compared with the pre-war output of 95 million tons of grain, only one-third remains. It suddenly changed from a grain exporting country to one with extreme shortages. Food country.

Of these 30 million tons of grain, approximately 11 million tons are used directly and indirectly by the military (corresponding to a total of approximately 10 million troops). Coupled with the material supply guarantees of important party and government agencies and scientific research institutions, The remaining population of more than 100 million people can receive less than 18 million tons of food - these 115 million people are the population currently controlled by the Bolsheviks. If there is another reduction of 3 million tons on this basis, he can't even imagine what the situation will be like this year.

His voice was hoarse and he said in an extremely painful voice: "Comrade Stalin, I have a different opinion. The food and industrial resources of the Caucasus Plain are very important to us. We cannot leave them to the Germans, at least not all of them..."