Chapter 2136 Deal with the Troubles You Cause Yourself

Although it is necessary to be prepared for battle at all times, Vatutin still left Malashenko a lot of room for maneuver.

Knowing that the current situation of the Leader Division is not suitable for a head-on confrontation with the enemy, Vatutin, as a qualified commander, does not want the Leader Division to rush to the front and face the German counterattack vanguard head-on.

Doing so will only cause the Leader Division, which is not fully staffed, to waste more strength in vain, and it may even affect the subsequent main attack mission of the Leader Division, which is not good.

So, Vatutin issued a rare order that was rarely issued to Malashenko in the past: stay behind the friendly defense line and wait for follow-up orders, as a mobile reserve, ready to rush to help at any time. This time, the Leader Division does not need to take the lead.

Once the battle situation changes, the Leader Division will be needed at any time to fight with any German who dares to block the way until it is repelled, no matter what the status of the Leader Division at that time is.

The mobile reserve of the entire army, Malashenko remembered the last time he undertook such a task, that was during the Battle of Kursk. I remember that it was not upgraded to a division but a brigade-level organization at that time. It was also the first time he worked with Vatutin. Thinking about it now, it really makes people feel a lot of memories.

"Comrade Commander has bought us some time. I hope this will allow us to gather more troops, but if the development of the war does not require us to participate in the war, it will be even better."

The meaning of the political commissar's words is very simple. Once the leader division receives an order to go to war, it means that the friendly defense line in a certain direction ahead must be pierced by the Germans, and there must be a high-speed mobile German armored force that is rushing in like a no-man's land.

The Germans who have torn open the gap in the Red Army's defense line love to do this every time, provided that they can really tear open the Red Army's defense line. This kind of thing seems to be a luxury at the moment, but it should not be taken lightly.

"Maybe the Germans' main attack direction is not ours. Maybe they want to break out to the west, which is their real strategic depth. Even if they break out to the east, they are just jumping from one encirclement to another. The entire eastern and southern directions are now full of Red Army troops. They are courting death."

It's not that Malashenko underestimated the enemy, but Malashenko simply thought that "jumping from one encirclement to a larger encirclement" was simply stupid. Those who can come up with such a combat plan and deployment are probably a little bit stupid. And it is recommended that you never think your opponent is too stupid. Malashenko has always been very clear about this, so he said it now.

"Your thinking is certainly reasonable, but the premise is that the Germans' combat plan is a breakout plan rather than an annihilation plan."

"What if the Germans want to rely on East Prussia to turn the tide? Gathering the entire Second and Third Belorussian Fronts under the city of East Prussia, even if they are not annihilated, at least they will severely damage and mostly destroy us, forcing us to have a strategic retreat, just like we did to them under the city of Moscow in 1941."

"If this is the case, then the entire front situation will be fundamentally reversed. If the Germans succeed, there will be no strategic corps of the Red Army in central and northern Poland to fight against the German fascists, and the First Ukrainian Front on the southern line will become precarious, and the entire northern flank will be completely destroyed. All exposed, the German army of the East Prussian group can completely move south to attack the First Ukrainian Front. "

"At this time, the best situation is that the First Ukrainian Front can hold the front line and form a salient deep into Poland to prepare for our future counterattack. Most of the Polish territory that has been liberated will fall into the hands of the fascists again. The strategic situation can be said to have basically returned to the state after the end of Operation Bagration, which means that the Red Army's strategic offensive this time has nothing to gain except leaving a salient in southern Poland. "

Holding a drawing pencil and simply drawing a circle on the map to indicate, after listening to such an analysis, Malashenko was also pondering the truth in his heart.

"What do you think is the possibility? The possibility that the Germans really dare to think so and dare to do so. "

Malashenko's words are steady and calm, and the corresponding tone is the same as the political commissar's continued speech.

"There is no accurate grasp worth saying, but what I want to say is that what our division can think of, there is no reason why the German General Staff can't think of it, we can't underestimate the opponent."

"From the comparison of enemy and our forces, this battle is 900,000 to 1.3 million, with a total force difference of about 400,000, not to mention technical equipment and air force, all of which are our advantage. But I think the closer it gets to the last moment, the crazier the enemy may be. After all, the front line has been pushed to their doorstep, and East Prussia is of extraordinary significance to these German fascists."

""

It cannot be said that the situation imagined by the political commissar will definitely not happen, but such a battlefield situation has another meaning to Malashenko.

This sounds very much like the Eastern Front version of the Ardennes counterattack. The possible fruits of victory are extremely tempting to the Germans, and in a sense, the Germans really have the capital to do so: there are many more additional troops than the total force in the existing history, most of which are front-line field troops that fled to East Prussia from the north and the central Warsaw direction, and have considerable combat effectiveness.

And the group of Germans who escaped in the central Warsaw direction had not suffered much damage. The original Warsaw defense force and the subsequent reinforcements did not fight with the Red Army at all.

After easily beating the Polish ghosts who were making trouble in Warsaw, they were scared away by the multiple bad news that the war on the northern and central lines had collapsed, the Great German Division was completely annihilated, and the Red Army's vanguard leader division had entered Warsaw overnight.

But perhaps it was precisely these front-line field troops with a large number of heavy weapons and technical equipment, relatively complete organization, and almost no losses that gave the East Prussian German group, which was stronger than in the existing history, the confidence to take the initiative to make trouble. The so-called "900,000 against 1.3 million, the advantage is mine" may not be empty talk.

So if you want to talk seriously, you can still blame our old comrade Ma for the current situation. It is the subsequent chain reaction caused by the various strange and unexpected butterfly effects that led to the current situation.

You have to deal with the troubles you have caused yourself. This is the real situation that Malashenko faces after realizing the root cause of the problem.