Steel Soviet Union

Chapter 2218 Collapse (Part 1)

In fact, there is another very important factor involved in why Vatutin so boldly allowed Malashenko to penetrate deeply.

First of all, the German army had many more troops at hand before the start of the East Prussian Campaign than in the existing history. With such a large amount of money, it was inevitable to have other thoughts.

For example, when some micro-controllers in Berlin look at the map, they may think, "Dang! I still have a million soldiers in my hand, but the enemy on the other side only has about a million soldiers. This is not a big difference. Our German soldiers are so elite, Isn’t it too much to say that I have the upper hand? Well, this is an obvious advantage for me.”

Under the command of this upper-level brain, the lower-level German front-line troops concentrated a large number of troops on the front line to confront the Red Army. In fact, there was nothing to say in the confrontation. The problem was that they also planned to regain the strategic initiative through a strategic counterattack. Turn the entire strategic situation from defense to offense.

Let's not say whether such a fight can be successful. First, you must gather as many troops as possible and not have too many troops before you can try to win this battle. Although the overall military strength was quite large, it was still inferior to the opposite Red Army by simple comparison. This forced the German army to bring almost all the main combat troops to the front line and prepare to participate in the war.

Logically speaking, this is correct.

You want to come back from adversity and make a big bet to turn defeat into victory. At this time, if you are still hesitant and timid for fear of failure and dare not invest decisive forces, then the battle has not started yet and you will lose a lot of momentum and preparation. Logically speaking, you basically don’t need to fight this battle. There is no difference whether you fight or not. If you fight too timidly and don’t dare to invest, you will give away your record to the opponent and you can’t win at all.

Therefore, even if there are problems with the strategic orders issued by the leadership, there are still no problems with the military deployments made by the German high command. Following the highest strategic orders issued by the leadership, military deployments were made with sufficient determination, and all the decisive forces at hand were put into the front line and prepared to participate in the war. Only in this way can the odds of winning without an advantage be maximized.

But in many cases, the correct deployment and firm determination at the military level are often not enough to make up for the huge mistakes made by the leadership in strategic orders.

It's like you took the first step in the wrong direction. It's a blind alley, but how can you find a bright road? As the saying goes, if the upper beam is not straight and the lower beam is crooked, if the upper-level decisions are not made well and no matter how the people below are allowed to perform, it will often be in vain. The German army in the entire East Prussian theater is currently facing this situation.

A large number of elite field troops gathered on the front line, leaving the permanent fortifications and solid cities that had been in operation for many years in East Prussia, the ancestral "Longxing Land", to exploit weaknesses and avoid strengths to achieve strategic decisive victory with the Red Army. Go out to the city to fight.

To put it bluntly, Vatutin even felt privately that he should thank the Germans who were the enemies in front of him for issuing this supreme strategic decisive battle order. Anyone who could issue this order was truly a "rebellion". "Fascist hero" and "anti-German hero".

The reason why we can say this is very simple. This order not only saves the Red Army a lot of trouble in siege operations, but also reduces the overall casualties of the Red Army, which were originally expected to be very high.

Now that the war has been going on for 44 years, some things have become very obvious.

You three virtues are holding on to the city and insisting on fighting street battles and defensive battles with strong positions. You have invested all 200,000 more troops than in the existing history into front line defense. If you say that, it is really a headache for the Red Army. of.

Even if the total strength and technical weapons are superior, and the overwhelming strength of the Red Army aviation is available to help, chewing out East Prussia, the super turtle shell that has been managed by the Germans for so long, is still enough to cause a headache, and of course it is also quite time-consuming and laborious. .

But now that you Germans have abandoned the city and left the defensive positions behind, and come to fight a strategic decisive battle with a heavily-armed group, the situation will be completely different in the sky and on the ground.

Apart from anything else, the massive troop losses and troop casualties encountered in frontal field battles were beyond what the German army cluster entrenched in East Prussia could make up for.

After the land and water connections with the German rear had been completely cut off by the Red Army and the situation was encircled, the German army group entrenched in East Prussia could only rely on themselves no matter what they did, and they had to bear all the consequences of winning or losing by themselves. Come on, don't even think about getting any more support.

You said it would be okay if we really won the battle. No matter how great the losses were, as long as the Red Army was forced to retreat and the siege was lifted, the fight would be considered in vain. In the future, the entire strategic situation could be revitalized and reinforcements brought over. These would not be a problem.

But if you can't win the German stick, what will happen?

To put it simply, even those solid cities and permanent fortifications that have been carefully prepared and operated for many years may not have enough troops to defend them, let alone strengthen their defenses.

The German army cluster in front was torn into pieces. One large and one small area were covered by the Red Army and could not move. They lost the ability to continue the attack, let alone retreat to the rear to regroup. At the same time, the solid defense lines in the rear that could have played a big role have become empty decorations, waiting for the Red Army to swagger over and occupy them.

This is not some wild fantasy, nor is it some wild nonsense, but a real battlefield situation that is very likely to happen in the near future.

You can even say that the current East Prussian German army cluster is not far from such final destruction. Regardless of whether the German army is aware of this situation or not, the objective facts are always happening and ongoing regardless of human subjective will. It was Malashenko who sounded the first death knell for it. The leader who leads.

The 41st Armored Corps was encircled and unable to move. After losing its strategic mobility, it was impossible to retreat back to the defense to block the leading division's roundabout operations. This was one of them.

The second is the German armored divisions that were singled out from the surrounding fronts and theaters. Even if they were really stupid and did not care about the fire in the front yard, they came to intercept the leading division. Let’s be honest, can these independent armored divisions sent by your Santoku to intercept the leader’s division really be able to defeat Malashenko, the notorious “steel butcher”?

You can't beat me, but why are you trying to defend and intercept?

You are not putting out fires in the rear. You are just beating the old horse and never coming back. You are purely giving meat to the leader to improve your record. If you really have the "Anti-German Hero" medal, it would be a pity not to give you three virtues. .