Iron Cross
Chapter 675 Dawn (5)
"Rommel's troops are all German ace troops. They have strong combat effectiveness and a very high fighting spirit. Head-on confrontation is not a good option. Even if they are barely surrounded on all sides, they may be forced out by the opponent. This is why we used 30 troops last time. The reason why encirclement and interception with ten thousand troops is still ineffective. But the supply line is its fatal weakness. Once I block the supply channel with heavy troops and do not engage him, the enemy will either attack the huge group composed of 500,000 troops, or he will suffocate to death. "
"Will Hitler give up this army group? If we deploy 1 million troops to the Central Asian front, our defense in the hinterland will be even more empty - if you do not plan to use the main forces of the four southern fronts." Kuznetsov proposed. The opinion said, "The enemy can completely use these 100,000 people as bait, and then push them all the way to the Ural Industrial Zone."
"Isn't this the result Comrade Vasilevsky hopes to see?"
Vasilevsky said angrily: "I did this without intending to use the two fronts in the center. Now that you are doing this, I have nothing to rely on."
"So I have to bet. What I'm betting now is that Hitler can't give up this 100,000-person army." Zhukov's eyes were bright and his tone was very firm. "First, Rommel was Hitler's favorite general. He not only served as his The guard battalion commander was also a war hero packaged by the fascist official organization, and Hitler would never give up on him, both privately and publicly. Secondly, although Rommel's army group was not large in size, it was a very famous unit, including the Grossdeutschland Division. , the 15th Armored Division, the Prince Eugen Mountain Infantry Division and the 1st Mountain Infantry Division, as well as the German 1st Parachute Division and the Italian Paratrooper Brigade.
Zhukov had very detailed information. The 5th Panzer Army commanded by Rommel were all top-notch A-type units, and they had even completed the 1943 type formation. Originally, there was also a Viking division in the army sequence, but later due to the formation of the 1st SS Panzer The Army Group, the Viking Division, together with the Guards and the Imperial Division were selected, and the 1st Mountain Infantry Division (Edelweiss Division) was assigned to Rommel. The latter was quite satisfied with this, because given the terrain of Central Asia, the heavily armed Viking Division It is not as appropriate to use as a standard mountain infantry division, not to mention that due to supply constraints, the 5th Army can no longer afford a third Type 1943 armored division. Both armored divisions are struggling very hard - if it were not for the help of the transport aircraft formation, If you are very busy.
"If even a marshal with great military achievements like Rommel and his ace troops who symbolize the glory of Germany can choose to give up, then I have nothing to say. Hitler is indeed a hero of the generation and worthy of the status of European hegemon. So the Soviet Union and Germany should stop the war as soon as possible. Forget it," Zhukov explained, "This is a gamble, but I believe the Germans will take the bait."
"Suppose this trapped beast is really surrounded, what are you going to do next?"
"For the troops that must be rescued, the enemy has only two choices: either to dispatch troops from the middle battlefield to go south for rescue, or to dispatch troops from Army Group South to go east for rescue. Either option is very beneficial to us, and our army can take advantage of the situation to launch Fight back."
"Surrounding the point for reinforcements?" Stalin became excited, "Let the four southern front troops join forces with the Central Asian troops to attack for reinforcements?"
"No!" Zhukov suddenly said, "This is not my goal. It is impossible to succeed just by surrounding the point and calling for reinforcements."
"Where do you plan to attack?" Stalin asked curiously, confused.
Vasilevsky vaguely understood, and immediately shouted: "I firmly oppose this plan. Besieging Rommel's headquarters is already a major gamble. I don't want you to gamble again and put the future of the country and the Red Army on it." …”
"Now we can only give it a try. Any delay is slow suicide. If we win, we will sit down and discuss the conditions with the Germans; if we lose, we will unconditionally accept the German conditions and simply use the Ural Mountains as the dividing line... "
"No! I still stick to my original idea, elongate the German salient and then attack from below."
"This is opportunistic." Zhukov retorted unceremoniously, "What if the enemy doesn't take the bait? What if the enemy only advances to the existing front this year, and then waits until next year to repair the bridge and railway and solve the supply problem, and then push forward step by step? You go back another 1,000 kilometers?”
Vasilevsky argued unconvincingly: "The international situation may change significantly next year, and the domestic situation will also tend to improve. At least there will be no problems such as food crises."
"What if it continues to get worse?"
"I asked, what are you arguing about?" Seeing that the two of them were arguing, Stalin was still confused. He looked at Zhukov first, and then at Vasilevsky. Not knowing what they were arguing about, they finally had to turn their attention to Kuznetsov, "Can you tell me about their respective strategies and who is more reasonable?
"Comrade Zhukov's idea is to mobilize troops in a series: first use heavy troops to trap Rommel's headquarters, lure the German army to send troops to rescue and mobilize the opponent's troops and fronts, use part of the troops to delay time after winter, and plan to use the battlefield space to carry out counterattacks Attack - the heavy troop groups from Stalingrad and Moscow advance from the north to the south and rush towards the Voronezh line; Comrade Vasilevsky's opinion is to continue to retreat, lure the enemy to reveal flaws, and then launch forward pincers from the two bottoms of the protrusion. We are preparing to launch a large-scale offensive to deal with the intruding German troops in one fell swoop, striving to push the front back to the late summer..." Kuznetsov relied on his pointer to outline different overall strategic concepts for Stalin on the map.
Zhukov's offensive plan involved the use of a total of 4 million troops: 1 million of the troops dispatched from the center battlefield were responsible for holding back Rommel; another 500,000 troops plus the first batch of troops were used to contain the German Army Group South and Army Group Center Reinforcements dispatched; the main offensive forces are 1 million troops from the three fronts in the direction of Stalingrad on the southern front and 750,000 troops in the two fronts in the direction of Moscow on the northern line. An additional 750,000 troops are responsible for the connection and liaison between the battlefields.
The core concept was to lead the German army's center of gravity from the center to Central Asia and the Caspian Sea, and then use the German army to launch a general offensive in the opposite direction when it was too late to return reinforcements. Overall, it was called a reverse plan, also called a grand solution. Because although the Red Army still has more than 8 million troops on its books, only about 6 million can actually fight, of which about 1 million are distributed in the Far East and Siberia and cannot be moved, and there are still 1 million who need to guard key areas and cannot move lightly. 4 million are dispatched Wan basically means all the troops are put out to fight. Winning the overall situation will fundamentally improve the situation. Not to mention gaining the upper hand, at least it can maintain a relatively decent tie situation. Losing is also easy, and you can just accept your fate.
What Vasilevsky drafted was actually a defensive counterattack plan, which required a total of about 2 million troops: of which 1 million troops were transferred from the central battlefield to lure the German army to extend the front line and continue the attack, prompting the German army to extend the supply line to 1,000 kilometers. above, and then mobilize about 500,000 troops from the north and south to carry out assaults, cut off the supply channels of the German army in the salient, and force the German army to retreat. During the retreat of the German army, the 1 million troops who had been retreating were responsible for the counterattack, trying to eat up the 1-2 group armies behind the German army, restoring the overall front line to that of late summer, and thwarting the German offensive attempt.
The core concept is to lead the main forces of the German Army Group Center and Army Group East towards the Ural Mountains. The Red Army will use its characteristics of internal operations, familiarity with the situation, and relatively less reliance on logistics to fight the German army, hoping that the German army will reveal flaws in the retreat process. Since both the battlefield scope and the number of troops used are smaller than Zhukov's plan, it is also called a forward plan or a small solution. Winning the battle will bring about an improvement in the situation similar to the Moscow Counterattack, but it will not shake the German army's advantage. It will only make the opponent pay more and greater costs, and the war will inevitably become protracted.
Due to the relative weakness of the Red Army's combat effectiveness and low industrial capabilities, both plans inevitably had flaws:
The flaw of the grand solution is that the requirements for tactical command are too high. Not only must Rommel be trapped in the first step, but Rommel must be used as bait in the second step to mobilize the German army. If the German army does not take this bait, the rescue mission may be completed very quickly. , the plan will inevitably fail;
The flaw of this small solution is that it requires too much urgency in the enemy's strategic vision. The starting point is that Germany hopes to find and eat the main force of the Red Army on the middle battlefield as soon as possible and then force the Soviets to sign an alliance under the city walls. If the German army is not anxious to complete its victory in one battle, it can completely ignore the temptation of the Red Army. and provocation, and continue to fight step by step, so that the Red Army will not have any chance to take advantage of it, but will create a scorched earth zone of hundreds of kilometers in vain.
After listening to Kuznetsov’s analysis, Stalin’s face was uncertain. The two plans actually reflected the two people’s different value orientations: Zhukov repeatedly emphasized the need to make peace quickly and preserve vitality, so he hoped to determine the outcome in one battle; Vasilevs Ji has always advocated delaying change and exchanging space for time, so he tried his best to prolong the war process. For example, for a person who is seriously ill, Zhukov advocates major surgery - either to clean up the stubborn disease and get a new life, or simply prepare for funeral arrangements; Vasilevsky advocates conservative treatment and wants to wait to see if the condition improves or has new special effects. Medicine (dramatic changes in the international situation)
These are two completely different ideas. Stalin himself was faced with a dilemma as to how to choose: should he try hard while he still had some capital, or should he gradually stop losses and exchange small losses for a chance to continue to survive.
"I will give you 4 hours to formulate a complete plan. I will hold an emergency meeting tonight, and the comrades of the General Secretary and the Supreme Command will review and discuss it." Stalin didn't know which decision to make, so he planned to put the relevant plan Leave it to other senior executives to discuss it so that if any problems arise in the future, you can have a decent retreat.
Zhukov and Vasilevsky looked at each other, and then agreed unanimously.
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