The decisive battle against the Third Reich

I went to Shanghai to study for a few days and gained a lot, especially for someone like the soldier who basically ignored the outside world and only focused on writing his own book... The soldier never read the Internet for twelve years after writing the book. I don’t know anything about the context, direction, etc. of online articles. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I work behind closed doors. After studying, I realized, "It turns out to be like this, it is like this..." Thanks to the editor and the master for reminding me, and thanks to the book friends for their support, Soldiers will work hard to write better online articles.

In the Moscow Kremlin, Stalin adopted an uncharacteristically conservative attitude.

Before this, Stalin had always been very tough, either requiring the troops to defend until the last man and not taking a step back, or ordering the troops to launch a counterattack to resolutely destroy the enemy.

But now, Stalin was hesitant about whether he should attack.

This is actually not Stalin’s fault.

First of all, it turns out that Zhukov is not invincible.

For example, in the previous counterattack plan prepared in Stalingrad, the German troops had already retreated before they were launched.

If this can be said to be an accident, then the attack on the Caucasus Mountains can be said to be a complete failure... This attack not only consumed a large amount of manpower and material resources of the Soviet army, but also caused more than 100,000 Soviet casualties.

More than 100,000 people may be nothing to Stalin, but these 100,000 people are elites selected from various armies. So it can be imagined that this had a negative impact on the combat effectiveness of the entire Soviet army.

Secondly, this attack was so important that Stalin had to be cautious.

Stalin smoked his pipe and stared at the attack plan on the table, but he was thinking about other issues in his head.

After a while, he said to Zhukov who provided the plan: "Comrade Zhukov, have you ever considered that this plan has invested all our reserve forces in it, and if it fails... what will be the consequences? "

"Of course I have considered it, Comrade Stalin!" Zhukov replied: "If it fails, we will not be able to organize another counterattack of similar scale for a long time!"

Stalin did not speak. In fact, he believed that not only was it impossible to organize another counterattack of similar scale, because the Baku oil fields fell into the hands of the Germans and the Soviet oil reserves had been exhausted, this would cause the Soviet tanks, fighter planes, and even all equipment to be outnumbered. reduction in size.

In other words, Stalin was worried not only about the inability to organize another counteroffensive of a similar scale, but also about whether the Soviet army would be able to block the German counterattack if it failed this time and suffered heavy losses in troops.

However, there seems to be no need to worry too much about this issue, because the British and Americans will not sit back and watch the collapse of the Soviet Union, so the possibility of this happening is unlikely, but Stalin does not like to leave his fate in the hands of others... This is not only Dignity issues, and more importantly, politics and diplomacy will fall into complete passivity.

If the Soviet army can still compete with the German army, or at least can block the German attack, then the Soviet army will have the capital to negotiate with the German army. At the same time, it will also have the power to speak with the British and American troops, and it can even use this to threaten the British and American troops. Open up a new battlefield.

But if the Soviet army is about to collapse... then let alone negotiations and threats, the Soviet Union will only have to ask Britain and the United States.

Thinking of this, Stalin asked again: "Do you know the German defense situation, Comrade Zhukov?"

"Yes, Comrade Stalin!" Zhukov replied: "They seemed to be aware that we would launch a counterattack, so they made defensive preparations!"

This is nonsense. The Soviet army has assembled a large number of troops in Kursk. Who would not know that the Soviet army is going to counterattack.

After a pause, Zhukov added: "They laid a large number of mines, barbed wire, and bunker fortifications on the front line, and also built two reserve lines of defense, about 15 kilometers deep!"

"Even knowing this, are you still preparing to launch an attack?" Starling asked.

"Yes, Comrade Stalin!" Zhukov replied: "But the Germans were so conceited that they did not destroy roads, railways and bridges. They were not even prepared to blow them up!"

Zhukov was right. This was because the German army believed from top to bottom that the Soviet counterattack was only temporary, and the German army would eventually fight back or even launch a counterattack.

On the other hand, the German army's "Blitzkrieg" and logistical supply difficulties made it more dependent on roads and railways.

Therefore, the German army and the Soviet army are generally at two extremes in this regard:

The German army would rather leave roads and railways to the Soviet army than destroy them.

The Soviet army, on the other hand, would rather blow it up than leave it to the Germans.

Of course, the retreat of Army Group South after the Battle of Stalingrad was a special case.

"The problem is..." Stalin took the pipe from his mouth and asked: "How can we break through the enemy's defense line without paying a heavy price? You know we can't experience another defeat!"

"I know, Comrade Stalin!" Zhukov pointed to a point on the map and said, "That's why we set the main attack direction here!"

Seeing the place Zhukov pointed to, Stalin thought for a while and finally nodded in agreement, because even Stalin was deceived by Zhukov.

Therefore, Zhukov's main attack direction is not the front of the Kursk salient... This is all an illusion deliberately created by Zhukov.

Zhukov called it the "Maskirovka" plan.

This plan is to deliberately create the illusion that the Soviet army will launch a large-scale attack from the front of the Kursk salient...

For this reason, Zhukov deployed a large number of troops here, including infantry, artillery, and tanks.

Among them, the infantry is real, but many cannons, tanks, etc. are fake. There are also a large number of fake fortifications and fake airports.

The fake airport was more troublesome to build, because it actually required a clearing, which required a lot of manpower. Otherwise, the German pilots would know the authenticity of the airport just by looking down.

Then, Zhukov deployed a large number of fake tanks and fake aircraft on these fake fortifications and fake airports.

Of course, these areas are garrisoned by absolutely trustworthy troops, and no one or any unit is allowed to approach.

This is to prevent German reconnaissance. Until now, let alone Zhukov, even ordinary soldiers know the history of the German Brandenburg troops. They can always penetrate the Soviet army to collect intelligence.

The German army had no doubts about these actions of the Soviet army, and even Marshal Manstein and Qin Chuan were kept in the dark.

Of course, it is understandable that Qin Chuan was kept in the dark, because he had very little access to information.

The reason for this is not only that Zhukov's plan was more rigorously arranged, but another more important factor is that the Soviet army has never been good at implementing strategic deception.

This feels a bit like lying.

A person who tells lies will usually be viewed with suspicion by others.

But if an honest person who never lies lies once in a while...even if this lie has many loopholes, it is quite lethal and will deceive a large number of people.

The Soviet Union clearly belongs to the latter.