Chapter 414 Caucasus (2)
Zhukov left the conference room with extreme resentment, and then rushed to the front line by plane to coordinate operations. The continuous evolution of the war situation had a great impact on him:
First, Manstein's sudden general attack during the day exceeded his expectations. It not only caused him to misjudge, but also made him make a big fool of himself at the meeting, especially after he had just said "quickly" "Monday, if not by the end of the month", I received information about the enemy's full-scale attack when I said this. The situation was as ironic as possible, as if someone had suddenly slapped me hard in the face, and my face was burning with pain. Although most people in the high command appreciated his judgment of the battle situation, Manstein's unexpected behavior made him feel embarrassed.
Second, he was very worried about the unsatisfactory war in Transcaucasus. Although Comrade Stalin did not offend anyone this time, his attitude toward Caucasus Front Commander Tyulenev and Lieutenant General Mezov who died for his country was quite mild, even though he was furious after hearing the news of the surrender of the Baku garrison. It only lasted for a while and then subsided, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs was not asked to get to the bottom of it. But Zhukov still felt very uncomfortable - although the Transcaucasus campaign was not under his direct command, it was greatly worsened by the sudden attack of 500,000 Turkish troops. situation, but since the General Staff has the responsibility to control the overall situation, he feels that he should anticipate these in advance and be prepared to deal with them, rather than being passive afterwards.
Third, I feel sad for the situation in the Transcaucasus. Georgia is the hometown of Comrade Stalin. When he was young, Stalin participated in many revolutionary activities in Georgia, especially in Tbilisi, and he had deep feelings for the region. Although Comrade Stalin’s consistent words and deeds cannot be regarded as He was more Russian than Russian, and he had no particular desire to hold his men responsible for the loss of Georgia, but Zhukov was still uneasy about the fall of Georgia.
Finally, I am worried about the future war situation: the Red Army has lost the densely populated and industrially developed areas in the west, the large coal mines in the Donetsk Basin and the huge oil fields in Baku. The war economy will be seriously affected, even in the Far East. Or supplementary production elsewhere won't help. Although the battlefield situation seems to be relatively stable in the past few months, Zhukov knows very well that this is an illusion and an illusion. In fact, the Red Army's sustained combat capability has been continuously declining, especially in response to the Operation Blue at the turn of this summer and autumn. After the German army's offensive and penetration forced a large number of forced conscription, the army's combat effectiveness has reached a disastrous point: no matter the quality of the soldiers, command ability, equipment level or logistics supply, it lags behind the German army, and it is very difficult to continue fighting.
Zhukov studied the battle reports sent from the front line, especially the battle situation of the 11th Guards Heavy Tank Brigade, and saw many problems: the KV-3 tank, which the Red Army had high hopes for, was still no match for the Tiger tank. , even excluding the impact of air strikes, in face-to-face armored battles, the battlefield survival time of KV-3 is only slightly better than that of T-34/76, and the exchange ratio with Tiger is still as high as 5:1 or even 6:1, which is very disappointing Unacceptable results. The General Staff of the Red Army estimates that Germany now has 1,000-1,500 Tigers (in fact, even if all assault tigers and exported Tigers are included, the total number of Tigers owned by the German army does not exceed 700), while the Red Army has only more than 500 heavy tanks. Most of them are outdated KV-1 series. These KV-3s with unstable performance and mechanical level are actually new tanks.
Marshal Voroshilov has instructed technical experts to continue to develop new tanks based on the KV-3, and has also given this equipment a new number - IS-1. While insisting on developing heavy tanks, the Red Army has also accelerated its efforts to target T -34 tank comprehensive upgrade plan, but in sharp contrast to the rapid upgrade of the No. 4 tank to the H type, the T-34/85 plan for the T-34/7 caliber artillery has not been able to be implemented. During the implementation, this happened Such questions made Zhukov extremely anxious. Nowadays, the front-line tanks do not have an advantage in performance, aircraft performance does not have an advantage, and logistics support does not have an advantage. The only advantage is probably the number and scale of the troops. Unfortunately, the Germans did not recognize this truth at all during the war, and still defeated a large number of Red Army troops. Falling back like an avalanche.
What's even more terrible is that two of the three routes for receiving foreign aid support from the allies have been cut off at once. Currently, only the Far East can still smoothly import supplies, but it is still unknown whether the Japanese will cut off this route. Even if Japan continues to implement the The policy of intervention was to quickly transport supplies from Vladivostok to the front line. The losses and delays in the process were astonishingly high, and the amount of supplies arrived was insufficient. It was simply not enough for frontline needs or rear production needs. The troops had to endure inferior armor. The finished T-34 tank fought with the German army.
Vasilevsky was much calmer and calmer than him. His point of view was: "We all judged that Manstein was going to launch an attack, and even saw that his offensive route was basically consistent with what we imagined. The only one who guessed wrong was It may be due to the time and method of the general offensive, but in this large-scale battle of 2 million troops, apart from causing some confusion, the sudden attack at the beginning cannot significantly change the overall battle situation and balance of forces. Why do the Germans want to fight this kind of battle? Where's the battle?"
The plan prepared by the General Staff had predicted the offensive route of the Southern Army Group, hoping to lure the German army to the vicinity of Stalingrad, use the city defense line to delay the German army, and then use the reserve forces on both wings to outflank and annihilate the enemy army that broke through and finally win. Now Manstein is following this idea step by step, and Vasilevsky is muttering: Is it really that simple? If the Germans are so easily fooled, why has the Red Army been retreating all the way in the past two years?
Even in the period from January to February when the two sides did not engage in large-scale fighting, the Red Army's performance was very clumsy: several fronts had considered launching a fierce attack in winter, but they were hit hard by the German army's solid defense line and mobile defense measures. The total number of casualties, injuries, desertions and surrenders reported from the front line exceeded 300,000, while the casualties of the German army on the opposite side did not even exceed 50,000. With better transportation, medical and traffic conditions, the proportion of German wounded returning to the battlefield in the future will exceed 60% - this is a very scary number.
Zhukov temporarily ignored Vasilevsky's concerns and kind reminders. His mind was now full of ideas of stabilizing the position, gradually retreating, and then relying on favorable terrain to block the enemy and launch a full-scale counterattack...