Struggle in Soviet Russia

"Base Camp hopes that we will make some breakthroughs in at least two key positions."

The German airstrikes finally ended, but the smoke-bearing stations were still very noisy. Firefighters took the time to put out the fire with the cooperation of the soldiers, and more staff members were intensively loading supplies on the vehicles, preparing to take advantage of it. During the German airstrikes, more supplies were transferred away.

In the rearranged front army command post, in front of a huge map, Timoshenko and Bulganin, with a group of staff members, surrounded them, talking about new issues that were now very difficult for them.

"The failure of Kiev put a lot of pressure on Moscow," Timoshenko said with a solemn expression in front of the map. The British, as well as the Americans, have also had more worries from this. The assessment of the battle of Kiev in the newspapers of those Westerners is that after losing the battle, we are likely to choose to stand alone with the Germans. Gullies on the front, abandoning Ukraine in exchange for the German retreat in the direction of Moscow."

These mentioned by Timoshenko are the problems currently facing the war. Moscow also knows that the western army is insufficient and the equipment is short. It also knows that it is not wise to choose to take the initiative to launch an offensive against the Germans at this time, but the overall environment is like this. If nothing is done, the alliance will be very passive politically.

As a marshal in the Soviet Red Army system, Timosin’s position determines that when he considers war issues, he can’t just consider the war itself. He also needs to consider political issues. This is what the rank of the marshal is. What needs to be done, after all, war will always serve politics.

"After discussion with Comrade Military Commissioner and Chief of Staff Vasily," Timoshenko took the command putter at the table and clicked on the map near the front of Yelnya. Then, the pole slipped. , And reached the position west of Nelidovo, "The new combat plan will take the Desna River landing site west of Yelnya and the West Dvina River and the Meza River Corridor as the main attack directions."

Victor was standing on the edge of the table. He was surrounded by the staff of the Front Army Command and the heads of various departments. Now, he is under the control of the Western Front Command. Therefore, he has the right to participate in similar combat meetings. As the commander of the front army, Timothy even gave him the right to express his opinions, but he rarely spoke, unless someone asked him, he would make some limited statements on intelligence issues.

However, after attending meetings with these high-level commanders for a long time and listening to them talk about some of the high-level combat arrangements, Victor is also learning, just like Timoshenko’s brief overview of the combat direction now, he can come up with this arrangement. What is the purpose.

The so-called Desna River Landing Site is nearly 30 kilometers west of Yelnya, where it is now occupied by the Germans, while the so-called West Dvina and Meza River Corridor is in Nelnia. Nearly sixty kilometers to the west. There, the West Dvina and Meza rivers run opposite each other. Between the two rivers, there is a long and narrow corridor with a frontal width of more than 20 kilometers. This corridor is not only narrow and simple, but also has a complex terrain. Because of the vertical and horizontal network, it is very unfavorable to the advancement of mechanized troops.

The landing site of the Desna River and the Corridor of the Two Rivers are separated by nearly 120 kilometers. Yaltsovo and Dukhovshina are within this 120 kilometers. At the same time, they are still controlled today. The Wuppi River defense line in the hands of the Soviet army is included in this range.

According to Victor's guess, the purpose of this combat plan should be a breakthrough on the two wings of the German army, thereby posing a threat to the German defense line within 120 kilometers of the front and forcing the opposite direction to retreat.

To be honest, Victor is not optimistic about this battle plan, because it contains a lot of speculative factors, because in terms of the strength of the Western Front, even if it really put the German army into the pincer offensive. The pockets are also incapable of eating the opponent, so in this plan, the factor of military blackmail is more serious. But whether this blackmail is meant to blackmail the Germans or blackmail Moscow, it is not easy to say.

The military meeting did not last long. After all, the command headquarters now only has a general combat objective, and the detailed combat plan needs to be studied by the front combat department, and then the staff officers can refine the details. Come out a detailed battle plan.

Of course, even if the combat plan is taken out, the front army headquarters cannot immediately implement it, because this repugnance has to be copied to Moscow, and the Supreme Command will make the final decision.

Walking out of the headquarters, Victor's mind was still thinking about the battle plan proposed by Timoshenko. He considered using another feasible battle plan to replace this highly speculative plan, but in the end there was no plan. It is almost impossible to come to any feasible plan to launch a counterattack against the German defense line and achieve major results when the Western Front is seriously insufficient.

Today's Western Front is not incapable of launching a counterattack, but the result of the counterattack is, at most, gaining a certain advantage in a certain area. However, in order to achieve combat results, the base camp needs to add more troops and equipment.

Taking just one group army aviation unit as an example, the number of fighters currently owned by the air force of the Western Front is no more than 200 fighters and more than 200 bombers. In the German camp on the opposite side, this number is three to four times the number of Soviet troops.

Therefore, if the Western Front is now handed over to Victor for command, all he can do is to use a solid line of defense as much as possible to delay and deplete the German offensive and strength, use his body to drag down the German army, and then look for opportunities to counterattack. .

As the so-called "Autumn rain and a cold", Russia in mid-September is becoming colder day by day. In an environment of more than ten degrees Celsius, just wearing a shirt and a military jacket is already fascinating. Obviously feel cold.

Taking into account the increasingly cold weather, Victor is formulating a plan, which is more in place. This is a plan for operations behind enemy lines. Its entire combat plan will be handed over to the infiltration squad active behind enemy lines and The guerrillas came to execute.

There is no doubt that according to the characteristics of Russia's climate, after October, a short autumn has entered the end, and then the winter is approaching. Considering that the Germans currently fighting on the front line still use summer equipment, if they want to continue fighting after winter arrives, they must provide winter clothing and heating equipment for millions of front-line officers and soldiers within one and a half months. They also need to replace antifreeze oil for tanks and other mechanical vehicles. Of course, they also need to provide heating equipment for individual soldiers, higher-calorie rations, and so on.

These materials will be an astronomical number, and it is impossible to solve the problem only by road transportation and air transportation. In other words, before winter comes, the Germans will rely more on rail transportation for logistics transportation.

What Victor needs to do by the guerrillas active behind enemy lines is to harass the German logistics and transportation trains. The methods of harassment include bombing bridges, destroying railways, trains, etc., in a word, they must use all means to delay. , Slow down the German supply of materials to the frontline.

More German soldiers should not be able to wear winter clothes or heating equipment, and their vehicles and machinery should not be able to start due to lack of antifreeze oil. A battle like this might cause the guerrillas to suffer huge losses, and it might not directly kill much of the effective German forces, but it can support the Soviet army from a very direct side.

What Victor didn’t know was that in his previous life, the Soviet army also used this tactic before the outbreak of the Moscow campaign. However, the person who proposed this tactic was Comrade Abakumov. Tactically, the Soviet guerrillas active in Belarus even assembled to form a large guerrilla zone. Their actions caused great trouble to the German army. At the same time, it also attracted the attention of the German army. After the battle of Moscow, it was completely encircled and suppressed by the German army.

From this perspective, Victor’s previous claims that the Germans did not lose to the Red Army but to the winter are actually untenable. The severe cold has the same lethality to anyone. Who can say that the German soldiers who froze to death under the city of Moscow were not indirectly killed by the Soviet guerrillas?

Back to her previous residence, the small room that was originally very rudimentary is no longer what it looks like. However, Olica is still doing the cleaning very carefully. She even covered a bed sheet on the blown window hole. , It can be regarded as a temporary window to come out.

Seeing Victor go back, she stopped her work and handed over a document two centimeters thick to him. This is the intelligence information gathered by the communications command center today. After being screened by the intelligence analysis team, she returned There are so many that they think are more important.

According to the regulations of the People’s Committee of the Interior, these intelligence information cannot be directly handed over to the front army headquarters. Even Timoshing, who is a commander of the front army, has no right to consult some intelligence information. After all, some front-line commanders also It belongs to the monitoring target of the NKVD.

Nowadays, at Victor's request, the work of the intelligence analysis team pays more and more attention to details. Each batch of intelligence documents has been cataloged and independently bound according to different contents, so it is very convenient to consult.

Victor still had a faint smile on his face when he took the document from Olica, but when he opened the title page of the document and saw the first piece of information, the smile on his face instantly changed. Solidified.