Struggle in Soviet Russia

In the early morning, thick white fog enveloped the entire Slucci River.

On the edge of the snow-covered jungle, a group of dejected German soldiers were walking slowly toward the west along a trodden and messy path.

This team of German soldiers has a large number of soldiers. They formed a team that stretched for several kilometers. The former team was about to arrive in Perzhevka, while the soldiers of the latter team were still struggling to cross the frozen Sluch River.

Oh, it’s not accurate to say that it’s the frozen Sluch River. Before yesterday, the big river that stretched less than 60 kilometers west of Zhytomyr was indeed still frozen in winter, but it was yesterday afternoon. , Soviet aircraft launched a round of indiscriminate bombing on the German defense line on the right bank of the river. The ice of the entire river was blown up, and the warmer weather in late January made this river impossible. In one night, it was frozen again.

This German army retreating in the direction of Perzhevka belongs to the famous German tank 4-Tank 4, this armoured army that once crossed Europe, had more than 630 vehicles in its heyday. Tanks, and equipped with four infantry divisions, and now, although this retreating unit belongs to Tank 4, but the entire unit has only four tanks, and they look scarred.

It must be admitted that after nearly three years of war, in the midsummer of that year, many German troops that broke into the border of the Soviet Union with billowing smoke and dust have basically been maimed, and the front-line combat troops are basically dissatisfied with the organization. Even if it is full, it is basically made up of recruits with no actual combat experience, or even "boy soldiers". The German Wehrmacht that once trembled the entire European position is now completely history.

On the edge of the jungle, a tiger tank with a broken antenna and mottled paint on its body was bumping forward in the snow and mud.

The tank's hatch was open, and a German colonel with gauze wrapped around his head, exposed half of his body outside the tank's hatch, frowning at an old newspaper in his hand.

The colonel’s military uniform was already in tatters. He had obviously suffered head injuries before. In addition to the gauze wrapped around his head at this time, there was dry blood on the shoulders of the uniform, which made him look very embarrassed.

The colonel's name is Hecht. That's right, he was the German captain who had had a friendship with Victor in Lviv, but if Victor were here at this time, he would probably not recognize the German captain.

The original Captain Hechite, especially Hechite, who was promoted to a school-level officer during the Battle of Kiev, was always an aristocrat who paid great attention to personal makeup. No matter what, he would tidy up his face and the uniform on his body. Clean and tidy, the whole person looks handsome and graceful.

But nowadays, words such as clean and tidy have nothing to do with him. The masculine and arrogant demeanor has long since disappeared. To be honest, if you walk on the side of the road and say He is a beggar, I'm afraid everyone will believe it.

The tank was moving slowly in the mud, and the sound of the entanglement of the tracks and the wheels made people feel impetuous for no reason.

On the roof of the tank, Colonel Hecht looked at the yellowed newspaper in his hands, his blue eyes were full of confusion and confusion.

The newspaper is a Russian-language newspaper. Looking at the publication time above, it turned out to be a month ago.

Hecht doesn't understand Russian, but what he read is not a news report in a newspaper, but a photo in the headline of the front page.

In this photo, the main task highlighted is Stalin with a big beard. He is standing on a step, waving in the direction of the camera, and behind him are several people.

As a colonel in the German army, it is of course impossible for Hatchett not to know the main Soviet leaders. In this photo, he saw Molotov, Zhdanov, and Malinkov and Voroshi. Love.

However, it is obviously not these people that he really pays attention to, and these people don't need him to pay attention. They are the big people that Berlin will pay attention to. For Colonel Hecht, what he was concerned about was the young man hiding behind the crowd, showing only one face.

Because of the angle and exposure, this face looked a little blurry. He was wearing a military cap and tilted his head to look in the direction of the camera. Yes, even though this face was shot indistinctly, Colonel Hecht The young man was recognized at the first glance. Although it has been more than two years, the encounter in Lviv is still imprinted in his mind.

In more than two years, Hecht was promoted from a captain to a colonel. To tell the truth, Hecht has always thought that such a speed of promotion is fast enough, mainly because he has made a lot of military merits, enough to support this. This kind of speed promotion.

But...Look at the young face in the photo, when he was in Lviv, this guy should have been a lieutenant, right? But now, he has stood behind the leader of the Soviet Union. Although he can't see his epaulettes and collar badges, and cannot learn his military rank, since he can appear in such a photo, it means that this person The status in the Soviet Union should be high enough, at least not a school-level officer can dismiss it.

Of course, the confusion in Colonel Hitcht’s eyes did not stem from his jealousy of the young man. Although he looked like a beggar in terms of dressing, he still believed in the aristocracy in terms of personal ethics. I think that behind the promotion of that young man, there is something dark about Soviet Russia involved, and I only think that the other party has something extraordinary.

What really made Colonel Hatchett feel confused was that he didn't know where and in what direction his future path was.

Starting from Kharkiv, the troops under his command have experienced successive failures, retreats, failures, retreats, collapses... time and time again, step by step. There were a dozen tanks under his command, but today there are only four, and of them Two vehicles had malfunctioned, one could not retreat, and one turret could not rotate again.

In fact, at the end of the Battle of Kiev, the troops commanded by Colonel Hecht had already collapsed. Now this force is a remnant and defeated soldier gathered in the process of retreating to Zhytomyr. But even so, Colonel Hecht did not lose his confidence. He constructed a direction west of Zhytomyr, trying to block the subsequent Soviet attack.

However, as the so-called "leakage of the house is the night rain", the German army that suffered a disastrous defeat in the periphery of Kiev, and in the follow-up war forecast, miscalculated the Soviet army's ability to continue combat and multi-line simultaneous combat, considering the previous The Soviet army only launched a large-scale offensive campaign in the direction of Kiev. At the same time, when entering January, Leningrad also launched a large-scale counterattack. Therefore, the German Command believes that at least before the end of February, the Soviet Union The army will not launch a large-scale offensive in Ukraine.

But the fact is that after nearly three years of war, the Soviet Red Army has not only matured, but also become more powerful. The Red Army’s troops are not only capable of fighting continuously for several months, but also capable of fighting in multiple directions. Putting into the heavy army group and launching offensive operations at the same time.

As a result, just a few days ago, the line of defense organized by Colonel Hitcht collapsed again, and he could not even organize basic resistance.

Of course, all the errors cannot be simply attributed to Colonel Hecht, because the German Supreme Command also did not know that the Soviet attack in the direction of the Sluch River was only launched in the Ukrainian region. A part of a series of assault operations. Furthermore, the January offensive is still a continuation of the previous winter offensive. The Soviet Supreme Command has not yet planned to end this large-scale offensive before achieving the operational objectives of the winter offensive.

Splitting the forces of the "Southern" Army Group and the "A" Army Group with a series of powerful assaults, and annihilating them, this is the entire Soviet army's current combat plan in Ukraine, which is part of the entire "Right Bank Ukraine Campaign". It was also the second assault operation in the "Ten Stalin Assaults."

In order to ensure the smooth implementation of this large-scale assault operation, after his birthday celebration, Comrade Stalin once again sent the so-called "base camp representatives" to the main frontline troops to supervise the execution of the campaign in all directions.

There are a total of eight representatives from the base camp excluded from Moscow this time. Among them, three are going to Leningrad, and they are going to the Leningrad Front under the command of Govorov and the Volkhov Front under the command of Meretskov. , The Baltic Second Front under the command of Popov. Five people went to Ukraine. They went to the four Ukrainian Fronts 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively, and the Belarusian 2nd Front, which cooperated with the Ukrainian 1st and 2nd Fronts.

The "base camp representative supervises the war" system was formally appeared and stabilized after the Soviet army experienced the terrible defeat in the Battle of Kharkov in May 1942 the year before. The original purpose was to make the Supreme Commander The will is resolutely implemented and executed.

In the first more than a year, the "base camp representative" had a lot of power. It can really be said to be superior to the commander of the front. In some cases, the representative of the base camp can even decide the appointment and dismissal of the commander of the front. .

However, today’s "base camp representatives" no longer have such great authority. The main reason is that, at the suggestion of Comrade Zhukov and the General Staff, the Supreme Command accepted the recommendation of the front-line commander’s responsibility system, and the main authority of the front-line combat troops belongs to The commander, instead of being assigned to the "base camp representative." In fact, this also indicates that Comrade Stalin's direct command over the front-line combat forces has been weakened to a large extent.