The Rise of Australia

Chapter 921 Shooting

As the president of the Russian government, Sudarin naturally received the news that the Russian Western Front had been encircled and annihilated by Germany. It is worth mentioning that such news actually came from a German radio station, not a report from the Western Front or the military.

This surprised Sudarin, and he immediately called Zhukov to ask about the situation of Pavlov's Western Front.

Where is Pavlov at this time? Pavlov was located in the Bialystok position and was commanding the Russian 10th Army to defend the German offensive.

When Zhukov asked Pavlov about the current situation of the Western Front, Pavlov actually gave an uninformed answer.

As the commander of the Western Front, Pavlov's answer was undoubtedly unqualified, and Zhukov was extremely disappointed with him.

Immediately afterwards, Zhukov continued to ask whether the news on the German radio station was true. Pavlov's answer was that he was not sure, but it should be true.

What a good one!

Zhukov even laughed a little angrily. He hung up the phone call with Pavlov and conveyed all the above conversation contents to Sudarin.

At this time, Pavlov understood the seriousness of the matter. While he was still resolutely resisting the German frontal attack, the German armored troops he looked down upon had defeated the entire Western Front from the rear.

On the other side, Sudarin was very angry when he learned the news.

He couldn't believe that the Western Front commanded by Pavlov would be completely defeated in such a short period of time, and even the main army had been surrounded and annihilated by the Germans.

What makes Sudarin even more unbelievable is that Pavlov, whom he originally trusted, performed very incompetently in this war, and did not even know the situation of the armies under his command.

Although part of the reason for this was that the Germans destroyed the Russian army's communication system, Sudarin did not believe that hundreds of thousands of troops completely lost contact after they did not have telephones.

More importantly, the distance between Bialystok and the location where the Western Front was attacked was only a few dozen kilometers away.

As long as Pavlov could foresee possible attacks in the rear, the Western Front would not end up being surrounded and annihilated.

The angry Sudarin was just angry because he had no good solution to Pavlov who was in Bialystok.

At present, the Western Front's retreat has been cut off by the Germans. Even if Sudarin wants to recall Pavlov for questioning, he can only do so if Pavlov leads his army to successfully break through.

If Pavlov failed to break through, there would be no need to wait for Sudarin to try him, the Germans would be the first to capture him.

Thinking that Pavlov and other senior officers of the Western Front might be captured by the Germans, Sudarin's anger became even more intense.

Pavlov's military rank is general, which is already a very high military rank in the Russian officer system. Further up, only the Marshal can stabilize one end, which also means that if Pavlov is captured by the Germans, this will be a blow to the Russian war.

"Let that damn guy resist resolutely!" Sudarin said to Zhukov with a gloomy face: "I don't want the Germans to capture our senior officer, let alone the first Russian officer to be captured.

Tell him what he should do. If he is really unable to resist, I hope he can abide by the honor of a Russian officer instead of living in an ignoble life with his own sins. "

Sudarin's words were conveyed to Pavlov intact. This was also the expectation of the entire Russian government for the Western Front Command, which was to fight to the end.

Compared with the capture of senior officers of the Western Front, it is obviously more in the interests of the Russians for the Western Front to fight to the last man.

If it is the former, there is no doubt that the blow to the Russian army's confidence will be dealt a blow. This kind of thing where a senior general was captured just a few days after the war started is not something that a powerful country can do.

Of course, now it is not important to the Russian government and the Supreme Command whether Pavlov will fight to the end.

Most of the entire Western Front army has been surrounded and annihilated. This is an army of 650,000 people. After losing these troops, not only the Polish region occupied by Russia will be opened wide, but also the Ukraine and Minsk regions will face the threat of the Germans.

Not a few days later, good news came. Some remnants of the Fourth and Tenth Armies of the Western Front broke out from Grodno. Among them were members of the Western Front's headquarters, including General Pavlov.

But this was not good news for the Russian government and Sudarin. After the withdrawal of this remnant army, there were not many Russian troops left in Poland, and only one division was left in Baranovichi, the gateway to Minsk.

When facing hundreds of thousands of German troops, the strength of this division seemed so thin and fragile that it could be described as vulnerable.

As for Pavlov, who successfully escaped back to China, Sudarin's reaction was only two words: anger, extreme anger!

After returning to Moscow, the capital of Russia, the first person to meet Pavlov was Russian Marshal Timoshenko.

When meeting the marshal, Pavlov looked anxious and asked very uneasily: "Comrade Marshal, do I still need to report to you?"

"No need, Comrade Pavlov." Marshal Timoshenko looked at Pavlov with a gloomy expression, and directly interrupted Pavlov's question with his hand, and said with anger: "It's meaningless. Nothing can make up for our losses in Poland."

"Comrade Marshal, please consider my situation at the time. I think that if it were anyone else, it would be useless." Pavlov tried to defend himself.

But what greeted Pavlov was Timoshenko's even more violent anger and questioning: "I know that our Western Front soldiers lack training, and we have many other problems.

But do you know? We lost more than 600,000 troops, including a large number of tanks, planes and artillery, as well as the Polish territory we occupied.

As the commander of the Western Front, don't you have any responsibility?"

"But the Germans used 15 divisions to fight in Brest, including at least 5 tank divisions. And what about us? We only have 3 tank divisions, and the defensive army in Brest is even only 7 divisions.

It was the German armored forces that confused me. I am willing to make meritorious service and return to the battlefield in any position to make up for my losses to the country." Pavlov said hurriedly.

Faced with military personnel like Timoshenko, Pavlov still wanted to fight for it.

Because he understood that once he entered the government's trial, those government officials would not have any understanding of him, and he would bear the government's anger, and the price might be something he could not afford.

"Well, I don't have time to calculate these arithmetic problems with you." Timoshenko did not give Pavlov a chance, interrupted Pavlov's rescue directly, and ended the meeting.

Pavlov in the room was pale, he knew that he had lost all his chances. At present, he could only wait quietly for the government's trial of him. No matter what the result was, he could only be forced to bear it.

About an hour later, a lieutenant general from the Supreme Command entered Pavlov's room and handed Pavlov an arrest warrant.

"Comrade Lieutenant General, are you really right?" Pavlov looked at the lieutenant general in disbelief.

"If you are General Pavlov, then you are right." The lieutenant general nodded calmly, and without any expression, signaled the guards to arrest Pavlov directly. Although it was the first time to try a senior general in a war, it was not new for the Russian government and Sudalin to try military personnel.

However, due to Pavlov's huge guilt in the war and Sudalin's anger that had nowhere to vent, the trial lasted less than a week and the result was announced soon.

Pavlov, commander of the Western Front, Klimovsky, chief of staff of the Western Front, Grigoriev, director of communications of the Western Front, and Korobkov, commander of the Fourth Army, were sentenced to be shot and executed immediately for anti-Russian conspiracy and treason.

Russian President Sudalin signed the verdict, crossed out the words of anti-Russian conspiracy in the verdict, and agreed to the immediate execution.

In this way, a general, an admiral, and two lieutenant generals were immediately executed by shooting, which was also the highest-ranking generals executed immediately in the war since the establishment of the current Russian government.

Although senior generals of the Western Front including Pavlov were executed, Sudalin was still angry.

However, there was obviously a more important task at this time, which was to deploy the defense line from Minsk to Moscow to ensure the safety of the Russian capital Moscow.

If the Germans were allowed to quickly fight near Moscow, it would be a huge blow to the current Russian government.

In order to ensure the safety of the capital, the Russian Supreme Command dispatched the Reserve Army Group to the Minsk-Vitebsk line urgently, and tried to build a defense line on the Minsk line.

If Minsk could not be defended, a defense line would be built on the Vitebsk-Smolensk line, and this line would be defended to the death.

After Pavlov, Marshal Timoshenko became the commander of the Western Front, and Sudalin also gave Timoshenko a difficult task, which was to try to ensure that Russian territory was not violated.

But this task was indeed too difficult for Timoshenko. Most of the original 10th, 3rd and 4th armies of the Western Front were damaged, and the 3rd Army was completely wiped out.

The original total number of the Western Front was as high as 650,000, but the number of people who broke out was less than 50,000, not even enough for one army.

Although the Reserve Army Group will draw two armies to join the Western Front, the troops around Moscow will also mobilize part of the 10th and 4th armies to restore their organization and combat effectiveness.

But that is a matter for the future. Moreover, without a certain period of combat experience, the two newly joined armies and the reorganized recruits of the Western Front are actually not combat-ready.

What's more terrible is that the heavy firepower weapons of the Western Front, especially the tanks and aircraft that are in urgent need on the battlefield, are now at the bottom.

Because of the breakout, the less than 100 aircraft and dozens of tanks left by the Western Front have all become German spoils of war.

This is also one of the reasons for Sudalin's anger. Russia is not rich now. These weapons and equipment are a considerable fortune for Russia.

According to Timoshenko's estimate, after all the troops are reorganized, the Western Front will have the strength of four armies, and the total number will expand from the original 650,000 to about 800,000.

But this is not good news. Compared with the Western Front led by Pavlov, which was mostly composed of new recruits, the Western Front led by Timoshenko can be said to be basically composed of new recruits.

In terms of the replenishment of tanks and aircraft, each generation is worse than the previous one.

Pavlov still has 300 aircraft and hundreds of tanks under his command. The Western Front currently led by Timoshenko, even after the full complement, has only a few hundred aircraft at most, which are mobilized from Moscow and other regions.

The number of tanks is even smaller, only dozens of tanks, and a considerable number of them are the previous generation of Russian tanks.

Considering the loss of heavy firepower weapons and the decline in the overall quality of soldiers, it can be said that the combat effectiveness of the reorganized Western Front is not as good as the previous Western Front.

If you want to rely on these new recruits to stop the German attack, even if Timoshenko has long been a Russian field marshal, you can't help but have a headache for a long time.

On the German side, the victory in Poland obviously cannot satisfy the German appetite. Since the war has been declared against Russia, the Germans' ambition must be to attack Moscow and divide up the Russians' vast land area and rich mineral resources.

After encircling and annihilating most of the Western Front, the German army occupied and controlled important cities such as Bialystok, while organizing the army to continue to march eastward, and it took less than two days to conquer Baranovichi.

This city is the gateway to the west of Minsk, and it is not so easy to break through.

But because of the deployment of Pavlov's Western Front, Baranovichi was only guarded by a division of troops. When facing the attack of hundreds of thousands of German troops, this division of troops naturally could not resist for too long.

When Pavlov successfully broke through and arrived in Moscow, the German army had officially broken through Baranovichi, and the armored forces had already taken the lead as the vanguard and approached Minsk, a border city in western Russia.

Minsk is also a well-known name in Eastern Europe, and it has a history of nearly 900 years. This city once belonged to Lithuania and eventually became the territory of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania.

After being occupied by Russia in 1793, it has been an important frontier town in western Russia. It has been a famous military town and fortress in Russia since the Tsarist rule.

The good news is that Minsk currently has 4 divisions stationed and more than 300 aircraft.

The bad news is that the troops of these four divisions were once the reserve of the Western Front, in other words, recruits.

And the more than 300 aircraft had been damaged in the German attack, and the remaining aircraft had been damaged at least dozens of times in order to support the main force of the Western Front.

At present, the number of aircraft that can take off in Minsk is less than 70, and the number of aircraft that are truly combat-capable is only about half.

Relying on four divisions of recruits and thirty or forty combat-capable aircraft to defend this military town is absolutely tantamount to a fool's dream, and there is no hope at all.

What's more terrible is that the troops of these four divisions also belong to the Western Front and were once under Pavlov's rule.

After Pavlov broke through and fled to Moscow, the four divisions were leaderless and had no way to contact the Western Front headquarters.

You must know that according to the deployment and system of the Russian army, there are armies above the divisions, army groups above the army, and army groups above the army groups, which are equivalent to the Russian fronts.

This also means that these four divisions cannot contact the Western Front headquarters, nor can they contact the rear headquarters.