Struggle in Soviet Russia

The General Staff Building, Combat Research Office.

Victor strode into the door, and behind him was Sophia who helped with the documents.

Received a notice this morning, the General Staff Department asked him to come to the General Staff to attend the meeting as the head of intelligence, and his main task was to conduct an intelligence exchange with Antonov, the Minister of Operations, before the meeting was officially held. , In order to make up for possible errors and omissions in the battlefield intelligence of the General Staff.

The meeting was determined to be held at ten o'clock. In order to have enough time, Victor rushed over at eight o'clock. In the combat research room, Comrade Antonov, the head of the combat department of the General Staff, was already waiting for him. .

Seeing Victor entering the door, Antonov, who was checking the map, walked over with a smile, shook hands with him and said, "Hello, Comrade Victor."

"Hello, Alexei," Victor smiled, "Why, does Stalingrad have a new battle plan?"

The notice he received was to sort out the deployment of the German army in the Stalingrad direction, including the intelligence currently held by the intelligence department about the German army's logistical supplies and reinforcements in this direction.

"The battle in Stalingrad has been going on long enough," Antonov pointed towards the long table and invited Victor over, while saying, "It's already autumn and winter is coming soon, so Comrade Stalin The opinion is that before winter comes, a full-scale counterattack will take place in the direction of Stalingrad."

With that said, he has led Victor to the side of the long table, pointed to the map and said: "Now Comrade Zhukov is personally commanding and gathering troops to the rear of Stalingrad. According to Comrade Stalin’s instructions, this counterattack should be in November. The launch is short and the task is heavy, mainly because part of the deployment of the German army has not been confirmed, so you need to provide intelligence support."

It stands to reason that the action plan for this counterattack has not yet been issued, and all aspects of information should be completely confidential, let alone outsiders, even in the general staff, there are only a few chiefs of general staff, deputy chiefs of general staff, and A small number of staff have some understanding.

However, Victor's identity is different after all. He is the "secret head" of the National Security People's Committee in charge of intelligence work. There is no point in concealing information like this from him.

Victor looked at the map, turned his head and said to Antonov: "Comrade Alexei, you understand the situation. In the area around Stalingrad, the German surrender operation is very cruel. They have all the residents in the area. After the relocation, all the villages and farms in Yiying were burned down. It can be said that we have no way to establish an effective intelligence network in this area, because there is no soil for intelligence personnel to survive."

The tone paused, and he added: "Now, there are only a small number of guerrillas that can operate in that area, and their range of activities has been compressed in the jungle and swamp areas. It is difficult to survive and it is difficult to obtain effective intelligence."

Antonov nodded. He knew these things too, but he still hoped to get something from Victor. In any case, the exact information was always more reliable than the troops arranging someone to grab the "tongue".

"Fortunately, we have established a latent mechanism within the German army," Victor smiled, and said, "From them, we got some valuable intelligence information."

"Oh? Let's just listen," Antonov said quickly, overjoyed.

"More detailed things, I have sorted them into materials," Victor turned his head and motioned Sophia to put the file she was holding on the table, before continuing, "I can give a brief summary here."

Antonov nodded, took a stylus and handed it to him.

"According to what our intelligence personnel in the German army pointed out," Victor leaned forward, found the corresponding position on the map, and began to briefly introduce the information provided in the intelligence.

The intelligence in Victor's hands came from senior staff officers in the German Sixth Army's subordinate units. According to the intermittent information provided by the other party during this period of time, the troops of the Sixth Army are already in the mood of failure. The commanders and staff who really understand the situation of the battle have no hope of victory in this battle.

Now, senior commanders of the German Sixth Army generally believe that continuing to besiege Stalingrad has lost its meaning. The long front.

The last piece of information received as of three days ago shows that the weakest line of defense on the Stalingrad line of defense is currently located between Stalingrad and Voronezh, along the section of the Don River that is nearly 400 kilometers long.

On this long front, the German army has no troops to fill it, so only three group armies from the vassal countries were arranged: the Hungarian 2nd Army in the southern Voronezh region; the Italian 8th Army was retracted on the Don River in the southeast of Voronezh. Along the route; the Romanian 3rd Army is deployed at the Don River Bend.

Among the three armies, the Romanian 3rd Army’s combat effectiveness is slightly stronger, but their battle line is the longest, more than 200 kilometers, and this army is dissatisfied with the army. In the previous Soviet assault operations, they suffered a lot. Loss, but the subsequent soldiers did not make up for it.

This has caused Romania's deployment of troops to be stretched. In some areas, the frontal is two kilometers wide, and even only one platoon of troops is arranged to take charge of the defense.

Italy’s 8th Army has the most complete force. This unit under the command of Giovanni Messi has a decent fighting will. It has also fought against the Soviets several times before. To be honest, it is not as weak as imagined.

As for the Hungarian 2nd Army, they should be regarded as the strongest on this line, but they are also the weakest link. With 200,000 soldiers and 50,000 Jews arrested for forced labor, this unit is a powerful army.

But it is also this unit. The soldiers lack training. Many people don't want to participate in the battle. They just want to go home all day. It belongs to the kind of "turn around and run when the gun sounds." In addition, due to long-term discrimination by the Germans, this unit lacks heavy weapons, and they do not even have the ability to fight against tanks.

In addition, according to the report of the espionage personnel lurking on the German side, the work of providing winter supplies to the Hungarians has not been included in the work item of the German logistics department. In other words, before the arrival of winter, this unit is determined to be impossible to change. Installed.

In general, this Hungarian army is the kind of cannon fodder that eats the worst, wears the worst, and has the worst equipment.

In response to this situation, the Internal Intelligence Bureau has sent a group of political personnel to the unit to try to find opportunities to instigate them.

Therefore, judging from the current situation, the best breakthrough point chosen by the Soviet Army in the Stalingrad region should undoubtedly be the two areas south of the Don River and Voronezh.

However, Victor also emphasized that this is only the current deployment of the German army, because according to intelligence, the German command has issued a new order recently that they will draw more than 15 divisions from the Caucasus direction. Go to reinforcements for the battle in the direction of Stalingrad.

The location where these troops will eventually be deployed is still unknown. Therefore, the General Staff will also take this uncertainty into consideration when designating the combat plan.

Victor’s introduction is roughly that much. For more detailed information, Antonov needs to see the intelligence information himself. However, the information that the National Security People’s Committee can provide is only on the flanks. The real battlefield situation is always needed. It is up to the combat troops to identify them.

After introducing the basic situation, Victor straightened up. Perhaps it was a long time on his stomach. In addition, he always twisted his waist and his posture was not right. So when he stood straight, he felt a little pain in the position of the lumbar spine.

He rubbed his lower back while looking at the map, and said: "However, the Germans transferred so many troops from the southern front to Stalingrad at one time, which can make the war situation in the Caucasus easier. Moreover, from this point. From the above point of view, the problem of insufficient German forces has become more and more apparent. If we can bite them from the periphery of Stalingrad, it will be clearer than the next battle."

After he finished speaking, he turned around, and as soon as he raised his head, he suddenly found a large group of people standing at the door, and the one standing in the innermost was Comrade Stalin in plain clothes with a pipe in his mouth.

"Comrade Stalin!" Victor was startled, and subconsciously stood up straight, raising his hand in salute. As a result, the action was done too fast, coupled with the pain in the back just now, this suddenly stood up straight, unexpectedly flashed the waist again.

This hurt him, he couldn't help but grinned, and his body that had just stood up straight also bowed in an instant.

Comrade Stalin obviously noticed his abnormality. After smiling, he said, "Well, you can sit down first."

Immediately, he looked at Antonov who was saluting and asked, "How is it, have you done an intelligence comparison?"

"It has probably been compared," Antonov said, "but the details need to be compared with the information that Comrade Victor just provided."

Comrade Stalin nodded, looked at Victor again, and said, "Since you are not feeling well, you don't need to participate in the following meetings. Go back and rest first."

"Yes, Comrade Stalin," Victor had never thought of actively participating in this meeting. The so-called nonvoting meeting means that there is no chance for him to speak. What is the point of participating in it?