Iron Cross

General Vasilevsky, the new Chief of General Staff and representative of the Stalingrad Supreme Command, made additional remarks at Zhukov's instruction: "From the current situation, the northern Stalingrad salient and the southern Caucasus salient have been initially formed, like Our protrusion is sandwiched between two continuous undulating peaks, and Rostov is the key hub for the enemy to connect the two protrusions. It is the valley between the peaks. If the enemy advances 300 kilometers from this, We can level the front and merge the northern and southern protrusions to form a larger frontal protrusion. At that time, this continuous front is about 1,200 kilometers, and the enemy's Southern Army Group has more than 1.3 million troops in the middle. On the contrary, if we If Rostov can be recaptured, the connection between the two enemy protrusions can be severed."

Stalin nodded, indicating that he saw it on the map.

According to Hitler's original summer combat order to the German army, the main directions of the southern front were Stalingrad and "Operation Blue" in the Caucasus mountains. The former aimed to capture the city, and the latter aimed to seize the oil in Maykop and Grozny. as a target, ultimately pointing to Baku. However, due to the constant resistance of the Soviet army, both of these goals became impossible to achieve. By the end of August, Army Group B was still outside the suburbs of Stalingrad, and the Caucasus Oil Fields had only captured Maykop - which was destroyed by the Soviet army on its own initiative. The oil facilities that have been evacuated are still at least 100 kilometers away from Grozny, and the Baku oil field combat target is even further away. After Hoffman crossed over, these goals were all stopped.

Vasilevsky added: "Comrade Zhukov and I originally drew up a counterattack plan, which was to tightly clamp the German offensive group under the city of Stalingrad, and at the same time launch powerful assaults on both wings to establish an encirclement of the German Stalingrad group. The internal front and the external front to ensure the elimination of the besieged group, the plan code-named "Uranus", currently seems to be impossible to implement, we need new deployment. At the same time, in the Caucasus region, we originally fought for various mountain passes to defend Grozny and Ba. The Germans now have no propulsion power and only put their forces on the plains, and there is no possibility of executing these combat deployments. "

"You mean that the enemy may have given up his desire to advance into the rugged Caucasus mountains and instead defended the vast North Caucasus region (mainly the Kalmyk steppe). What is going on? The fascist gangs don't want our oil "Stalin stood in front of the map and looked at it carefully, feeling very confused himself.

"The General Staff has been analyzing the enemy's next move. We believe that the German army has three possible goals in the summer: one is to attack Stalingrad with all its strength; the other is to attack the Caucasus with all its strength; and the other is Army Groups A and B. As of the end of August, this judgment was still very reliable, but now the direction of the enemy's attack makes us a little unsure - judging from the fact that they continue to shrink the front but do not simply retreat, the German army A big move should be brewing.”

After hearing what Zhukov said, Stalin blushed and remained silent for a long time. The words of the general just now left a lot of face for the "great leader": before the start of the summer campaign, the Soviet General Staff judged that the main German combat force was on the southern flank, but Stalin insisted that it was still in the direction of Moscow, especially with the Rzhev prominence. Repeated battles for the army strengthened his confidence, and he decided to deploy all the main forces in the direction of Moscow, leaving only a part of the troops on the southern flank. As a result, after the German army launched "Operation Blue" and the Battle of Stalingrad, the strength of the southern wing was obviously insufficient. It was not until August 27 that, under Zhukov's repeated persuasion, three armies were dispatched from the direction of Moscow for reinforcements and allowed Chuikov served as the commander-in-chief of the Stalingrad Front, leaving Vasilevsky as the representative of the Stalingrad Supreme Command. Facts have proved that Stalin's judgment on the German offensive in the summer was completely wrong. It was only because of his effective response that it did not lead to the same consequences as last year.

"In addition, not only the defense areas deployed by the Germans are retreating, but the strength of the troops we face is also changing. Judging from the contact situation of frontline commanders, there are two less armored units of the SS Viking Division and Grossdeutschland Division this month. ——This is the first-class main force of the Germans. Their area is often the direction of the Germans' main offensive breakthroughs. Moreover, they have not been weakened too much in the early battles. Logically speaking, they should not be moved back to rest, but now we can't find them. To these two troops. Our judgment is..." Zhukov looked a little hesitant, but after a moment he elaborated.

The Soviet General Staff has two completely different views on the Eastern Front war situation in September. The first one believes that the Germans will switch to strategic defense for three reasons:

First, the Germans carried out general mobilization, which shows that their resources, materials and reserve forces can no longer sustain a large-scale offensive. Judging from the fact that the German army focused on attacking the southern flank in the summer without achieving obvious results, the German army's offensive will has extremely declined. ;

Article 2: Hitler launched a purge of senior generals. No matter what the reasons were, it greatly weakened the strength and morale of the army. It also reflected the serious internal divisions among the Germans. From August to September, the enemy troops continued to retreat. Judging from the situation, they lacked clear strategic thinking, and winter was approaching, so the Germans would not choose to attack in winter;

Article 3: During the four-month summer operations from June to September, except for the Crimea and the Black Sea front line, the Germans did not achieve outstanding results. Whether it was the oil fields in the Caucasus or Stalingrad, they were always firmly in our hands. Here, the total casualties of the Germans and their slaves were more than 500,000. The current overall combat strength of the enemy and ourselves is estimated to be 3.5 million:5.5 million, which means they have lost the capital to continue the attack.

Zhukov himself basically agrees with this view.

"Another view is that the Germans are preparing to launch a new attack, and the spearhead is likely to be pointed at Moscow again. Comrade Vasilevsky and some other comrades hold a corresponding view." Zhukov did not analyze the reasons to support this view in detail, only Simply said, "From a time point of view, this time is also the time when the Battle of Moscow was launched last year. The Germans can use last year's timetable without even changing the time; from the perspective of terrain and climate conditions, after the first winter The Germans are fully prepared for this battle, are familiar with the relevant environment and geographical conditions, and their winter equipment has been completely updated, which gives them more advantages; in terms of military strength, because we have mobilized many troops to move south, The Germans may be moving troops northward at the same time, and the balance of forces in Moscow may change significantly. "

"Moscow?" Stalin was thinking about these three words, which had a different meaning to him. Last winter, the German army launched a campaign to seize Moscow, but was repulsed by the well-prepared Red Army. This year, they thought they were the enemy. The focus has been shifted to the southern front, but from the current perspective, it does not seem to be that simple.

Vasilevsky did not explain too much the reasons for the views he represented, but instead added: "In addition, the frontline aviation also reported to us that the scope of activities of the German Air Force on the southern flank has also begun to decrease. It originally maintained its daily attack on Stalingrad. There were more than 300 air raids, but now the air raids have been greatly reduced. For two days, there was no one at all. We initially thought that the Germans were gathering resources to launch a violent attack on us, but after several days, there was no such trend. There is a saying that after occupying Maykop, the Germans will put their main force in the direction of Grozny, but a month later this has not happened. "

Upon hearing this, Stalin couldn't sit still anymore. He stood up and walked around in circles impatiently, muttering: "What is Hitler's intention?"

The two people watched the Supreme Commander thinking there, but they had no intention of saying more. Other figures in the headquarters, including veteran generals Antonov, Bulganin and Kuznetsov, all entered. Whispering communication status.

"What are your thoughts now?"

"The behavior of the Germans is very strange." Zhukov considered his words, but his eyes revealed perseverance, "The opinion of comrades is that since the enemy has retreated to rest, we also need this time to rest. The summer battle left us in a state of embarrassment. , the strength of many infantry divisions has dropped below 2,000 men - this is a danger signal, and if the fight continues, the combat effectiveness of these troops will be gone. "

"Comrade Constantine, what would happen if we launched a counterattack against the fascist army?"

"Counterattack?" Zhukov looked suspicious, "You mean?"

"Since the German army has formed an assault base..." Stalin walked to the map, his voice was very calm and powerful, and he made a big outflanking movement with his right hand, "We might as well attack the enemy from the upper and lower edges of the salient. That is to launch attacks simultaneously from the direction of Voronezh and the Caucasus, especially to attack the connection point of Rostov. The goal is to completely drive the enemy out of the Caucasus. We must at least restore the front line until the end of June this year, and then after the onset of winter Give the enemy a fatal blow."

Upon hearing this, the conference room fell into a terrible silence. No one spoke for a long time, everyone was thinking about this possibility. After another half minute, while Stalin was waiting anxiously, Zhukov finally spoke, but everyone was sweating at his words.

"I'm sorry, Comrade Stalin, your request may be a bit difficult, although I also want to fight back." Vasilevsky did not dare to speak so directly. He did not speak for a long time, but Zhukov bluntly pushed back.

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