Red Moscow

"I have carefully checked the records of the conversation between Zakharov and Sokov, and I think Sokov's analysis is very reasonable." Antonov said: "Our General Staff has gathered a large number of staff personnel, and deduced the places where the Allied forces might land, and Calais is one of the most important places.”

"What was the result of the deduction?"

"Although the distance from Dover, England to Calais is only more than 30 kilometers, if the Germans send heavy troops to defend Calais, the Allied forces will have to pay at least two to three hundred thousand people to complete the initial landing operation. "Antonov said: "According to the character of the Americans, they cannot bear such heavy casualties. Therefore, in order to avoid such heavy casualties, it is entirely possible for them to choose other directions to carry out landing operations."

"Even if you choose another direction to carry out the landing operation, you may not choose Normandy." Stalin lit his pipe, "It seems that we need to reconsider that matter."

Antonov looked up at the clock hanging on the wall. There was less than an hour left before the meeting of the Supreme Command. If Stalin cannot be persuaded during this time, Sokov may miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"Comrade Stalin," Antonov continued, "we have considered other landing sites, but either they are densely covered with hidden reefs, or they cannot accommodate large corps landings, so we have rejected them one by one."

Antonov's little move just now was noticed by Stalin. He said calmly: "The meeting of the Supreme Command will be held soon. I think it is better to discuss this matter at the meeting. There is still some time before the meeting. Go back and rest for a while, and wait until the meeting time." Come again."

When Antonov and Ivanov walked out of the office and walked along the corridor towards the General Staff, Ivanov asked curiously, "Comrade Chief of General Staff, what is the topic of today's meeting?"

Antonov glared at him, and then said displeasedly: "Comrade Ivanov, haven't you studied the secrecy regulations and don't know what you can ask and what you can't ask?"

Ivanov, who was criticized by Antonov, said sarcastically: "Comrade Chief of the General Staff, I am just curious. I was sent to the front by plane to consider General Sokov. But so far, I I don’t even know, what is the purpose of considering him?”

"When it's time for you to know, you will naturally know." Antonov waved his hand at Ivanov and said, "You have worked hard all the way, go back and rest first. If there is anything, I will send someone to call your."

An hour later, a meeting of the Supreme Command was held in Stalin's office.

The person who presided over the meeting was Vasilevsky. He said straight to the point: "One of our topics today is to discuss the selection of the commander of the Ukrainian Second Front Army."

Voroshilov, who was sitting below, couldn't help being stunned when he heard what Vasilevsky said: "Isn't the commander of the Second Ukrainian Front now Marshal Konev? Could it be that something went wrong with him, and at this time Remove him from his post?"

"Comrade Marshal, you have misunderstood." Vasilevsky still showed due respect to a veteran Marshal like Voroshilov: "The reason why we are discussing the candidates for the Second Front Army is because we are prepared to Appoint Marshal Konev as Commander of the First Front."

Seeing that Voroshilov seemed to want to ask something, Vasilevsky rushed ahead of him and said: "The position of commander of the First Front Army has always been represented by Marshal Zhukov. As the deputy commander, he has many more important tasks. There is important work to do, and energy cannot be wasted on one unit. Therefore, after our discussions, we are going to let Konev replace Zhukov. As a result, the position of commander of the Second Front Army has become vacant."

After Voroshilov figured out what was going on, he nodded and then remained silent, quietly waiting for the final result. But Timoshenko, who was sitting next to him, interrupted and asked, "Is there a suitable candidate?"

"Yes, Marshal Timoshenko, there are now two candidates, and we are considering who to appoint as the commander of the Second Front Army."

"Which two people are they?"

"One is General Malinovsky, commander of the Third Ukrainian Front!"

"What about the other one?"

"The other is the commander of the Sokov battle group, Admiral Sokov!"

After hearing the names of the two candidates, the people attending the meeting couldn't help but look at each other. If Malinovsky is appointed as the commander of the Ukrainian Second Front Army, everyone may not have any opinions. But now there is an extra young man, Sokov, competing, which makes everyone feel incredible.

"Comrade Stalin," Voroshilov stood up first and said, "I think Malinovsky is the most suitable commander of the Ukrainian Second Front."

"Everyone should still remember that in the later period of the Stalingrad Defense War, we had completed the task of encircling the German Sixth Army. At this time, the commander of the German Don Army Group and Field Marshal Manstein launched the 'Winter Storm' operation. Order Admiral Hermann Holt to march from Kutelnikov, 150 kilometers away, to Stalingrad, trying to rescue the Paulus Group besieged by our army.

When Hoth's troops advanced to 25-30 kilometers away from Stalingrad, it was Malinovsky who led the 2nd Guards Army. Kutelnikov.

It was precisely because of Malinovsky's victory that the fate of the German army besieged in Stalingrad was decided. Comrade Stalin promoted him to the rank of general and awarded him the highest honor of our army at that time, the "Suvorov Medal, First Class".

In February 1943, Malinovsky once again served as the commander of the Southern Front. In less than two weeks, he drove the German Manstein Group Army Group out of the Rostov and Don River defense lines, opening up for our army The road to Ukraine.

In recognition of his achievements, Comrade Stalin promoted him to the rank of general in March and appointed him as the commander of the Southwest Front Army, which is now the Ukrainian Third Front Army. The Germans swept away.

From mid-October, he launched a surprise attack on the German army, assaulting and occupying the heavily guarded city of Zaporozhye. This campaign successfully wiped out the German troops occupying southern Russia one by one, besieging the remaining German troops in the Crimea peninsula, cut off their retreat. "

After listening to Voroshilov's introduction of Malinovsky's brilliant achievements, Timoshenko also stood up and said: "I agree with Marshal Voroshilov's opinion. Although General Sokov's ability, everyone is It is obvious to all that the troops under his command have achieved a series of brilliant victories. However, he has never had the experience of commanding front army troops, so he hastily entrusted him with the command of a force with hundreds of thousands of troops. irresponsible."

"Marshal Timoshenko," Stalin asked as soon as Timoshenko finished speaking, "so you support Malinovsky as the commander of the Second Front Army?"

"Yes, Comrade Stalin, I really think so." Timoshenko explained to Stalin: "Malinovsky once served as the commander of the Front Army on different fronts. Whether it is from the command experience , or personal connections, are incomparable to Sokov."

"Comrade Antonov," Stalin did not express his opinion, but turned to Antonov and said, "tell everyone about it."

"Comrades, commanders," Antonov said, "the reason why we included Sokov in the candidate list is indeed because he has the ability to command a front army. For this reason, our general staff sent a special Comrade Ivanov, deputy chief of the general staff, went to the front to inspect Sokov."

"Investigation?!" Voroshilov frowned slightly when he heard what Antonov said: "You sent a deputy chief of staff to the front to investigate a commander of the group army, wouldn't others notice ?"

"I won't notice it." Antonov said with confidence: "After Ivanov arrived at the front, he didn't show up. Instead, Zakharov, the chief of staff of the Ukrainian Second Front Army, went to Sokov's place instead. The troops conducted a private inspection of Sokov."

"Can you tell us what the content of the investigation is?"

"We assume that the Allied forces are going to open up a second front in the near future, and then ask Sokov to describe the actions that the Allied forces may take." Antonov said: "We analyze that due to Italy's terrain constraints, even if the Allied forces occupy Italy , and it is impossible to launch an attack from there, because there are too many mountains, and the armored forces cannot be deployed at all.

After excluding Italy, the next option is if the Allied Forces landed on the northern coast of France, where would they choose the landing site? "

Antonov knew very well that even if everyone here knows the geography of their own country well, they have limited knowledge of the geographical locations of Italy, Britain, France, and Germany. So he walked to the map, pointed to the northern coast of France, and said to everyone: "According to the research of our general staff, the most likely place for the Allied forces to carry out the landing operation may be in Calais, France."

After listening to Antonov's explanation, everyone looked at the map and felt that the possibility of the Allied forces landing in Calais was undoubtedly the greatest. After reading the map, Ustinov, who had been silent all the time, said: "Obviously, from Dover in the UK to Calais in France is undoubtedly the shortest route. If I were to choose the place of landing operations, I would have nothing to do." Choose Calais without hesitation."

Ustinov's words aroused echoes. Beria, who was sitting opposite Voroshilov, was staring at the map and lost in thought. After the room became quiet, he asked Antonov: "Comrade Chief of Staff, I want to know whether the analysis made by General Sokov matches yours?"

Antonov was worried that no one would ask about this matter. Now that Beria asked, he said smoothly, "Comrade Beria, General Sokov's analysis is completely different from ours."

Everyone was surprised when they heard what Antonov said. Then Voroshilov asked curiously: "Comrade Chief of the General Staff, can you tell us where the landing site chosen by Sokov is?"

Antonov tapped the map twice with his explaining stick, and raised his voice, "Here, Normandy!"

"Normandy?!" Voroshilov put on his reading glasses, looked closely at the map for a long time, and finally shook his head and said, "The distance from the British mainland to Normandy is too far. With the existing sea transportation capabilities of the Allied Forces, it is impossible to Send hundreds of thousands of troops to this location for landing operations."

Seeing that everyone was opposed to Sokov's analysis, Antonov couldn't say anything more. He turned to Stalin and said respectfully, "Comrade Stalin, I'm done."

"Comrades," Stalin got up and left his seat, walked around the room clutching his pipe, and asked, "Have you made your final choice?"

"Yes!" Everyone replied in unison.

"Now that the final choice has been made, please tell me, who is the most suitable candidate to serve as the commander of the Ukrainian Second Front Army?"

"General Malinovsky!" Half the people were saying the name.

As for Tisokov, there are only three people named Beria, Ustinov and Antonov.

Although Malinovsky was not unanimously approved, it was enough for Stalin to make a final decision: "Comrade Vasilevsky, since everyone is optimistic about Malinovsky, then appoint him as the second president of Ukraine." The commander of the front army. The letter of appointment will be issued immediately, and he will take office immediately after the current campaign is over."

During the war, the efficiency of many things is very high. Not long after the decision to appoint Malinovsky as the commander of the Ukrainian Second Front was made, the official appointment documents were all printed out.

After reading the above content, Stalin nodded with a smile, then picked up the signature pen on the table, and signed his name under the appointment letter.

After the letter of appointment was signed, someone sent it away immediately, and a special person was going to send the letter of appointment directly to Malinovsky.

Now that the candidates for the commander of the Ukrainian Second Front Army have been settled, the next discussion is the ongoing battle in Ukraine. However, on the issue of how to use troops, Antonov, Voroshilov, and Timoshenko had serious differences, which sparked controversy.

Later, under the mediation of Vasilevsky, the two sides finally reached a consensus. In order to ensure the smooth progress of the battle in Ukraine, the Belarusian Front under the command of Rokossovsky will launch an attack on the enemy's defensive area to contain their forces.

Just when Stalin was about to announce the end of the meeting, his secretary Boskrebyshev pushed the door open and walked in. After entering the room, he looked around first, then quickly walked to Stalin's side, leaned close to his ear and whispered, and was about to pass a piece of paper to Stalin.

Stalin waved his hand at him and said, "Comrade Poskrebyshev, there are no outsiders here, please read the content on the paper to everyone."

"Comrade Stalin, this is a secret message from President Roosevelt." Poskrebyshev asked cautiously, "Do you really want to read it out in public?"

"Yes." Stalin nodded, and said in an encouraging tone, "Read it."

"Respected Generalissimo Stalin, I have the honor to tell you that in June of this year, we will open up the second battlefield that you are looking forward to-the place where the landing operation will be carried out: Normandy on the northern coast of France."

As soon as these words came out, all four were shocked. Everyone never dreamed that not long ago, everyone was saying that Sokov's idea was too unimaginable. Who would be so stupid to take the short cut, but take such a long way to engage in some kind of landing operation.

But now Roosevelt's telegram clearly tells everyone that Sokov's analysis is completely correct.