The decisive battle against the Third Reich

The news that the Germans broke through the Soviet defense line reached the Kerch Command, and Commander Kozlov was stunned.

"The Germans broke through our defense line?" Kozlov still couldn't believe it: "But we have three armies in front, and the defense line is only 18 kilometers wide. How could they break through the defense line guarded by our three armies?!"

"The 47th Army is advancing too fast, Comrade Kozlov!" Major General Bogdanov, commander of the 51st Army, reported: "And our 51st Army was blocked in Feodosia and couldn't move, and the Germans passed through the gap between us and raided the 44th Army!"

"How many people did the 44th Army lose?" Kozlov asked: "I don't know, Comrade Kozlov, we haven't contacted the 44th Army yet, and we haven't been able to count the number of casualties. There are corpses and wounded everywhere... This is simply hell! One thing is certain, the Germans must have passed through our defense line, and there are a lot of troops, at least one infantry division and one armored division!"

Kozlov slowly put down the phone.

Kozlov was not a person who knew nothing about military affairs. In fact, he could even be said to be a person with rich military experience: he graduated from the Advanced Infantry Academy and participated in the First World War. During the Civil War, he served as battalion commander, deputy regiment commander, regiment commander, and participated in the battles with the White Guards and the Basmachi gang. Later, he served as division chief of staff and division commander... and rose step by step to the current army group commander.

People who have risen step by step from low-level officers generally have solid military theories and rarely have theories that are out of touch with reality.

But Kozlov was still classified as "mediocre" because he completely succumbed to the Soviet military and political system at that time without any resistance... This was actually understandable. Mekhlis was an extremely terrifying existence for Soviet generals. He had previously carried out a purge of the officer corps and brought large numbers of Soviet generals to the firing squad.

Just like not long ago, Chief of Staff Tolbukhin was immediately dismissed for opposing Mekhlis.

Kozlov realized that if he opposed Mekhlis, he would not have a good ending either.

This can only be said to be Kozlov's short-sightedness.

If Kozlov was smart enough, he should have known that "this time is different from that time", and the current situation is completely different from before.

Before the outbreak of the war, Kozlov's obedience to Mekhlis might be correct, because there would be no external force to test whether Mekhlis's approach was right or wrong, and there would be no obvious consequences.

But...

After the outbreak of the war, especially the Soviet-German War had reached a critical moment when no one dared to easily bear failure and losses, the focus was undoubtedly on the war rather than Mekhlis.

Even if Mekhlis was Stalin's vassal, he would still have to bear the consequences if he lost the war, otherwise the entire Soviet Union would probably be destroyed.

Therefore, the right thing to do at this time was to challenge Mekhlis like Tolbukhin, risking being dismissed... Because it was obvious that if Mekhlis continued to command like this, he would definitely end up in defeat, and being dismissed would escape the accountability for the defeat and even be reused for it. (Tolbuhin was therefore trusted and valued in the direction of Stalingrad)

But Kozlov did not have the courage to do so. Like many Soviet officers, he was more afraid of Mekhlis than the German army.

"What happened?" Mekhlis walked into the commander's room sleepily and asked Kozlov, and his tone seemed to be somewhat dissatisfied with Kozlov for waking him up in the middle of the night.

"Comrade Mekhlis!" Kozlov said word by word: "The Germans broke through our defense line and are attacking Kerch!"

"What? What did you say?" Mekhlis was stunned: "Say it again!"

"Kerch is only 85 kilometers away from Feodosia!" Kozlov said: "If the speed is fast, the Germans will only need two days to reach Kerch!"

After a moment of silence, Mekhlis suddenly cursed: "Stupid, coward! If they obeyed my orders and resolutely captured Feodosia, none of this would happen. I will hold these cowards accountable and put them in jail one by one, and I will never show mercy!"

Kozlov was speechless after hearing this. The Crimean side has always been fighting according to Mekhlis's orders, and the 51st Army has also been fighting bravely. They are not all cowards as Mekhlis said. Mekhlis now suddenly seems to have nothing to do with him!

So, the battlefield is sometimes difficult to define.

Some things can be seen by anyone with a discerning eye as problems of command, but who can know if the soldiers are not resolute enough or brave enough?

The key point is that "bravery" cannot be quantified. It cannot be measured with a ruler or weighed with a scale to determine whether it is "brave".

Therefore, as long as the officers want to shirk responsibility, any defeat can be said to be due to the soldiers not being brave enough or the officers not commanding properly.

After another rage, Mehlis turned around and left the headquarters. Kozlov hurriedly shouted from behind: "Comrade Mehlis, what should we do next?"

"You should ask yourself!" Mehlis said without looking back: "You are the commander of the front!"

Hearing this, Kozlov felt as if ice water had been poured over his head. He realized that Mehlis was going to dump this responsibility on him... When Kozlov completely obeyed Mehlis and the entire front was in trouble, Mehlis did not think about stopping the situation from getting worse, but about drawing a clear line with it all.

Kozlov guessed correctly. Mekhlis really wanted to distance himself from all this, because even though he knew almost nothing about military affairs, he knew that failure was inevitable at this time, so he immediately sent a telegram to Stalin after returning to his office:

"Comrade Stalin, I regret to report to you: Since the Crimean Front ignored my warnings until the last moment, the Germans have seized the gap of the Crimean Front to break through our defense line and headed straight for Kerch Port. The logistics supply and command of the Crimean Front are seriously threatened, and they are in trouble. I ask you to replace Kozlov as the commander of the Crimean Front. His military quality is seriously mismatched with the position!"

If Kozlov saw this telegram, he would probably spit blood on the ceiling and die.

But Mekhlis didn't expect that Stalin would not be stupid enough to let him fool under such circumstances.