The Rise of the Third Reich

Because the German army occupied the entire right-bank Ukraine in the winter of 1942, and historically Latvia and Estonia had long been the Baltic states of the German Empire. Therefore, there was a Belarusian salient on the Soviet-German battlefield at the end of April 1943.

This is a huge protrusion surrounded by enemies on three sides, with a width of more than 400 kilometers from north to south and a length of more than 300 kilometers from east to west. At the same time, this is also the main defense area of ​​the Western Front of the Soviet Red Army (the commander is Marshal Kulik). The reason why the Western Front is still the "Western Front" instead of the "Belarusian Front" is because this Front still has jurisdiction over the besieged areas. Red Banner Warsaw Army Group in Warsaw (commanded by General Vasilevskiy).

Including the besieged Red Flag Warsaw Group, the number of troops under the command of Marshal Kulik, commander of the Western Front, exceeds 1.5 million. It is currently the ten largest front armies in the Soviet Union (Western Front, Southwestern Front, Northern Front, Leningrad Front, Kalinin Front) Front, Reserve Front, Far Eastern Front, Siberian Front, Central Asian Front and Indian Front).

However, after deducting the nearly 700,000 troops trapped in Warsaw, Marshal Kulik had only more than 800,000 troops at the end of April 1943. The front line that these more than 800,000 Red Army troops need to defend extends from the junction of Smolensk and Kalinin Oblasts in Russia to the confluence of the Pripyat and Dnieper rivers near Kiev in Ukraine. The total length of the defense line exceeds 900 kilometers!

Moreover, Marshal Kulik could not evenly deploy all his troops on this 900-kilometer-long defense line. Because the Supreme Command (actually Stalin's will) also gave two important cities Minsk and Smolensk that must be defended.

According to the instructions of the Supreme Command, Marshal Kulik released the elite 4th Army (comprising the 28th Infantry Corps, the 14th Mechanized Corps, the 62nd Fortification Area, the Independent 4th Tank Destroyer Brigade and other units) in the fortress-like Minsk. , with a total strength of more than 120,000), and a Minsk militia with more than 80,000 troops (these 80,000 are also among the 1.5 million troops of the Western Front).

In Smolensk, Marshal Kulik released the front headquarters and the 5th Tank Army directly under the headquarters (the commander was Lukin), the 22nd Infantry Army, the 51st Fortification Area and other units, and also formed a number of troops More than 50,000 militia troops.

On the Smolensk-Vitebsk line (located at the northern root of the Belarusian salient), Kulik deployed the elite 3rd Army; on the Vitebsk-Minsk half-moon front, Kulik deployed Kulik deployed the 10th Army; on the Minsk-Pripyat River (near Pinsk) line, Kulik deployed the 11th Army; on the Pripyat-Dnieper River area, Kulik deployed the 13th Army .

In addition, in Chervin, located in the center of the Belarusian salient, Kulik placed another 16th Army as a reserve (directly under the jurisdiction of the Front Army Headquarters).

In this way, there are 6 armies, 1 tank army (the Soviet Red Army is now larger than at the same time in history, with a total of 60 ordinary combined armies, 5 tank armies and 5 assault armies), 1 infantry corps, and more than a dozen militiamen divisions, as well as some independent artillery, rocket artillery, tank and cavalry units, as well as the 2nd Air Force Army, are the forces that the Western Front can use to defend the Belorussian salient.

These forces were of course very insufficient in the view of the Front Commander Marshal Kulik and the Front Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Pokrovsky. However, they did not frequently ask for help from Moscow because they knew very well that the role of the Western Front and the Belarusian Bulge was just cannon fodder to attract the attention of the German army!

Although Belarus is important, it is not worth mentioning compared with Leningrad in the north, which is in urgent need of relief, and the industrial area in Eastern Ukraine, which must be defended in the south. Moreover, there is a powerful reserve front army behind the Western Front. Even if the Western Front is trapped in a tight siege, the reserve front army can complete the arduous task of encircling Moscow.

Therefore, when Kulik and Pokrovsky were defending the Belarusian salient, they did not intend to fight the Germans head-on. Instead, they made a plan for the front-line troops to fight and retreat to Minsk and Smolensk - Belarus Most of the territory in the salient can be lost, but the two cities of Minsk and Smolensk are best defended. As long as it is defended, the road from Western Belarus to Moscow will be difficult to walk, and the German army will not be able to free its hands and feet to attack the capital of the Soviet Union.

But making plans is always easier than executing them. On the night of April 30, 1943, Kulik and Pokrovsky were worried about whether to shrink their troops immediately.

During the daytime battle on April 30, the first lines of defense at the northern and southern roots of the Belarusian salient were both breached by German armored groups - this was not a very difficult thing, because the four Soviet armies (almost 400,000 people) have to defend a long front of 900 kilometers, and it is deployed in depth at multiple levels. The strength of the front line is very limited. It is impossible to block the breakthrough of the German army's concentrated forces!

Similarly, due to the large-depth deployment, the Soviet army's front-line troops in the Belarusian salient were thin, and it was difficult to test the Germans' true and false strength during the breakthrough process.

"Comrade Commander, according to the reports of the 3rd Army and the 13th Army, the German army that broke through did not invest a large number of Tiger tanks." Pokrovsky said to Kulik while reading a stack of reports, "Facts The number of tanks and assault artillery deployed by the Germans was not as high as expected, but the intensity of the bombardment was so great that the artillery companies of the 3rd Army and the 13th Army were unable to fight back. "

Cannons don't burn oil. For the European Community, which has integrated most of Europe's industrial capabilities and has sufficient supplies of rare metals, its ability to manufacture large-caliber artillery is extremely excessive, even surpassing that of the American tycoons on the other side of the ocean.

Now the American steel industry claims to have an annual output of 100 million tons, but in fact it only has an annual output of 80 million tons. Germany's annual steel production has exceeded 32 million tons, France produced 8.2 million tons of steel in 1942, Belgium produced more than 7 million tons of steel, the United Kingdom produced 13 million tons of steel, and Croatia-Hungary produced 150 million tons of steel. Thousands of tons of steel, the European Community capital (referring to Alsace and Lorraine) produced 2.3 million tons of steel, and the annual steel production of the remaining European Community countries is about 1 million tons, a total of 65 million tons!

In addition, Sweden and the Netherlands, two neutral countries that were obviously biased towards Germany (they were both members of the European Customs Union), also produced a total of about 5 million tons of steel in 1942.

Therefore, in terms of steel production, the European Community (not counting the Roman Empire with more than 3 million tons of steel) and the United States are almost equal. In terms of the output of machine tools, electricity, and various non-ferrous metals (including major categories such as aluminum and copper), the European Community is not inferior to the United States in any way.

These outputs are reflected in the military, which means that as long as the weapons do not burn oil, Germany (European Community) must have more weapons than the United States, let alone the Soviet Union.

The towed artillery is the most powerful of all weapons that do not burn oil. Therefore, by the end of April 1943, the number of artillery possessed by the German army (including the French army, the Croat-Hungarian army, the Finnish army, etc.) far exceeded The Soviet army.

Moreover, the Soviet artillery did not dare to fire because of the threat from the air. Therefore, in the daytime battle on April 30, it was the German artillery that bullied the infantry of the Soviet Red Army.

Not only were the Red Army guarding two areas that seemed to be the concentrated breakthrough points of the German army were stunned by the German artillery bombardment, but the Red Army on the entire front (including the Belarusian salient front and the Dnieper River defense line) were being bombarded. Moreover, in many important areas, the German artillery bombardment was unprecedentedly intense, almost in the style of World War I!

Therefore, from the High Command of the Red Army to the headquarters of the following fronts, on the night of April 30, no one knew where the Germans' main breakthrough direction was - although the situation seemed to be to eat the Belarusian salient first. , but no one is so sure.

Looking at the map, Marshal Kulik's eyebrows twisted into a sichuan character, making his already fierce face look even more scary.

The marshal thought for a moment and suddenly said to Pokrovsky, the chief of staff beside him: "The enemy's purpose of breaking through from the root of the Belarusian salient is not necessarily to surround the Red Army in the salient."

"Isn't it to surround us?" Pokrovsky looked at the two black arrows on the map and discovered the problem. "Is that to break through the Dnieper River?"

"Yes!" Kulik nodded and said, "The main defense area of ​​the Dnieper River defense line is downstream of the confluence of the Pripyat River and the Dnieper River. North of the confluence of the two rivers, the Southwest Front did not deploy heavy troops, and the rivers were not It is relatively narrow and it is difficult to resist the German breakthrough. The Lutheran army that breaks through from the Pripyat River can break through the Dnieper River in the Chernigov area and break into the right wing of the Southwest Front from the junction between us and the Southwest Front. The Southwest Front's defense line adopts a deep layout. Such a breakthrough is not fatal, but now the main force of the Southwest Front is concentrated on the Dnieper River defense line. Once the German army encircles the right wing of the Dnieper River defense line, it is likely that the main force of the Southwest Front will be surrounded. "

Marshal Kulik paused and said slowly: "So... we don't have to worry about the German army breaking through from the Velikaya River. At worst, we can withdraw the 3rd Army to the 51st fortification area (around Smolensk). But from The German troops who broke through the Pripyat River must pay enough attention!

We must be prepared to hold a battle in Chernigov or Bryansk, east of the Dnieper River! "