Steel Soviet Union

The brilliant achievements of the leading division in the Cherkasy area spread throughout the entire army. Naturally, Vatutin was not the only one who knew this well. He also coordinated operations north of Cherkasy and commanded the Ukrainian Second Front. Konev.

"Comrade Stalin, after being honored to be promoted to marshal, I hope to be given command of the Stalin Guards 1st Tank Division named after you, so as to better carry out the next stage of strategic deployment. Leader Division "It will be crucial in the next move against Poland, and it will be a heavy hammer for us to break the chain of fascism that imprisons Poland."

"The Leader Division was originally a unit of the 1st Ukrainian Front. It was seconded to the 3rd Belarusian Front to participate in the battle during Operation Bagration. Now that Operation Bagration is coming to an end, the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts have been integrated into a powerful force. strategic cluster, I think it is time for the leader division to return to the first front army structure, so that it can be completed as soon as possible, the easier it will be for us to launch the next stage of strategic deployment and make a more comprehensive preparation before the attack begins. , more prepared.”

Even the high-ranking Zhukov was completely unaware of the content of Konev's face-to-face report to Comrade Stalin alone, let alone Vatutin who was still busy on the front line with the troops.

And when Comrade Stalin recalled Vatutin from the front line and listened to his work report alone, he tentatively talked about the possibility of transferring the leadership division. How would Vatutin, who had been greatly wronged last time, react? No more guessing.

"Comrade leader, this, this, I can't understand why?"

"Comrade Konev now holds the largest strategic cluster in the entire Red Army. You know the strength of the New Ukrainian First Front that integrates the two fronts. Our Third Belarusian Front has just such a main tank cluster. "It is completely incomparable to the New Ukrainian First Front. The cost of losing the troops in your name is unbearable for our front army."

Perhaps after seeing the aggrieved expression on Vatugin's face in front of him, he felt some compassion and felt that what he had done might have gone too far.

All in all, the fatherly comrade did not continue to embarrass Vatutin on this issue. Instead, he simply comforted Vatutin, saying that the matter needed to be discussed again and the final result had not yet been determined. He informed that the debriefing had been completed. Vatutin, who reported it, can retreat first.

Vatutin, who felt his head was buzzing, had no intention of staying any longer. He stood at attention and saluted Comrade Stalin, then turned around and left, gently closing the door and leaving.

Thinking that this matter still needs to be brainstormed, the kind-hearted comrade called in his "intelligent brain" and "fire captain" Zhukov. He briefly stated what happened and asked Zhukov what he thought and what his opinions were without expressing his attitude. Only then did Zhukov give his next answer.

"From a military strategic point of view, I support and agree with the leadership division continuing to fight in the Third Belarusian Front. What Comrade Vatutin said is well-founded. Compared with the powerful Ukrainian First Front, the Third Belarusian Front The Third Front Army does appear to be weaker, both in terms of overall size and quantity and quality of technical equipment.”

"Returning the leader division to the 1st Ukrainian Front will indeed make the already strong force stronger. But at the same time, we should also take into account what will happen after the 3rd Belarusian Front loses the leader division. Future tough battles will be difficult for them. It will become more and more difficult, just like the cavalry has lost its saber and the tank has lost its main gun.”

"Supplementing other troops can indeed make up for the lack of combat power caused by the transfer of the leader's division. Theoretically speaking, this is true. However, attention should also be paid to the tacit understanding and cooperation between commanders, especially since Malashenko and Vatutin have worked together for a long time, and Under the premise that I have never communicated with Comrade Konev, the troop mobilization process also involves issues of familiarity and cooperation with the entire front army, which should be taken into special consideration now that the war is imminent. "

If you want to say whether what Zhukov said is correct or not, there must be no problem.

Malashenko has followed Vatutin for so long, fighting all the way from Kursk to Cherkasy and then to Bagration. Objective facts have fully proved that this is a pair of superior and subordinate partners who work well together and are highly proficient. At least Zhukov himself feels that the cooperative performance of Malashenko and Vatutin is no better than when he commanded Malashenko. Familiarity feels worse.

In addition to satisfying Konev's potential selfish desires, and being promoted to marshal and then holding the command of the leading division for a while, Zhukov could not think of any other reason for having such a powerful strategic group unit as the 1st Ukrainian Front. Receive a special unit like the Leader's Division as a supplement to their combat power.

Just as I thought that night, the military serves politics, but soldiers are always inevitably affected by politics.

Zhukov did not want to comment too much on Konev. What he thought and how he acted was his business. He only needed to answer Comrade Stalin's questions matter-of-factly.

"Um"

Obviously, Zhukov's words had some impact on Comrade Stalin, but this impact was obviously not enough to have a decisive effect. Comrade Stalin was still thinking about some things that Zhukov could not consider at the moment.

And the words "Go and talk to Malashenko, he happens to be in Moscow. I want to hear his personal thoughts" became the final order Zhukov received from his loving comrade. Of course, it was also the first time. received such an order.

After all, Comrade Stalin had never before specifically requested to consult a tank corps major general and commander about the issue of troop mobilization. However, it is completely normal for Malashenko to have "no precedent". Zhukov himself felt that he was "already numb" about this, so he simply accepted the order and left without any surprise. .

Although it was true that he met Malashenko in person, Zhukov had no intention or time to fully describe the entire incident to Malashenko. I simply narrated it briefly and then directly raised the question, waiting to see how Malashenko would answer.

Faced with the sudden question raised by Zhukov, it took Malashenko a long time to recover from the initial surprise. A short period of thinking did not seem to be the reason for Malashenko's hesitation, and the answer he blurted out immediately was just as Zhukov, who was familiar with Malashenko, expected.

"Comrade Marshal, I want to continue to fight with General Vatutin. If the final result is indeed like this, then please convey my apology to Marshal Konev on my behalf."