Chapter 541 Castle (18)

The expected strength of the Red Army to rescue Tambov did not appear for a long time, but instead led to the Central Front's attack on Karachi. The differences among the frontline commanders immediately spread back to the headquarters and became disagreements.

Model was inclined to Schmidt's opinion, believing that the entire central front had begun to move forward, and a large protrusion was formed in the direction of Tambov. The tip of this protrusion was Tambov. Once the Red Army in the encirclement was eaten, the central front would The army group can quickly form superior forces. Whether it continues to attack the Steppe Military District, attacks north to Moscow, or turns south to Stalingrad, he believes that his side has complete control over the initiative.

Zeitzler was inclined to Reinhard's opinion. He believed that the significance of the armored group was not to siege the city, nor was it sufficient to exert its advantage in siege. At present, in addition to the eight armored divisions of the two armored armies, there were only 10 infantry divisions in total. , and 4 of them are very valuable Panzergrenadier divisions - now there are fewer Panzergrenadier divisions than armored divisions, and there are only 6 pure infantry divisions. They do not have a significant advantage over the defenders in the city. A forced attack The loss must be great.

In his opinion, now that Army Group East has been mobilized to take over the siege mission, Model's goal can also be achieved, just with a slight delay of a few days. The most important task of the armored forces at present is to attack the flanking forces of the Central Front in the south - to try to eat up the 150,000 mobile troops and then cut off Bagramyan's retreat. Although he has more confidence in the Italian troops in Karachi, what if there is a big hole? In his eyes, the Bryansk Front Army in Tambov's encirclement was already a prey in a urn, and he hoped to adjust the target and eat the Central Front Army as well. If the gap cannot be opened on the north and south wings, it is also ideal to bloom in the center.

These two ideas made Hoffman hesitate: on the one hand, he agreed with the opinion that the armored group should not be used for sieges, especially street fighting; on the other hand, the soldiers were quick and could take advantage of the Bryansk Front first. It was also visible and tangible, and he didn't think Tambov was as difficult to defeat as Stalingrad. As long as he was willing to pay the price, this city could be won in a short time.

But the results of the two-day trial siege made him frown: the front-line exchange ratio quickly dropped from more than 1:13 in the early stage to less than 1:4. The two armored armies on the north and south wings, with the strong assistance of the air force, still It cost more than 10,000 casualties, but achieved very little results. It only compressed the Red Army's defense line by 10-15 kilometers. It is estimated that the casualties caused to the opponent are less than 50,000 - many of whom were lightly wounded and could participate in the battle again.

More than 10,000 casualties may not seem too large, but if the previous 17,000 casualties are added, the total casualties of the German army have reached nearly 30,000, and the available combat strength of several infantry divisions has fallen below the 80% warning line. This made Hoffman finally make up his mind: Army Group East would be responsible for the siege, and the two armored armies quickly moved south, preparing to encircle and annihilate the flank of the Central Front 70 kilometers north of Borisoglebsk.

In order to reduce the chaos of troop deployment, Zeitzler not only fine-tuned the marching order, but also suggested that the 2nd Armored Army did not need to move to the southern flank first, but instead waited for Army Group East to take over the defense line before moving directly south, at the cost of slowing down the overall process by one day. Considering that the two armored armies had used up their fourth fuel base in the early battles, Hoffman agreed to the adjustment and ordered to quickly strengthen frontline supplies.

On the evening of May 30, the leading troops of the Eastern Army Group arrived at the Tambov defense line and successively conducted defense changes with the two armored armies. The defense change work continued until late at night on June 1. The leadership of the Tambov encirclement was also fully controlled by the Army Group. Weix was in charge, and the headquarters of Army Group East was located in Voronezh.

In order to better direct the war, late that night, the German base camp began to move south, from Smolensk to Kharkov - the central and southern Army Group B headquarters merged! According to changes in the battlefield situation, Hoffman successively issued a series of adjustment orders, the most important of which were three:

First, General Erhard Rouse's 3rd Armored Army cooperates with Army Group Eastern and is on standby in Orel and Voronezh;

Second, General Model commanded the 2nd and 4th Armored Groups to annihilate the right wing of the enemy's Central Front;

Third, General Huote commanded other troops of Army Group B to hold the Karachi front line.

Regarding the remnants of the Bryansk Front in the Tambov encirclement, the command headquarters formed a unified opinion: there is no need to rush to attack the enemies of Tambov, and it may be more useful to keep them. Weikes and Zeitzler did not give up, and wanted to use this bait to lure the Western Front or the Steppe Military District. They did not believe that the Russians would leave a huge gap and sit idly by. Once the Red Army was dispatched, the first troops on standby would The 3rd Army will immediately have a chance.

They never expected that Stalin was even more anxious than they were. When Leitel reported that the Bryansk Front had only 200,000 troops left after days of fighting, and that all materials, equipment, and supplies were insufficient, he was completely frantic - ——No matter how knowledgeable the military is, anyone can understand what it means for such a big gap in the central front, not to mention Stalin, who calls himself a "strategic commander." On the one hand, he kept saying that he would no longer interfere with the specific command of the General Staff, but on the other hand, he secretly and openly tried every means to prepare to mobilize troops to reinforce Tambov. However, this effort hit a wall in all aspects:

At first, he hoped that Konev would take the initiative to express his willingness to send troops to support the Steppe Military Region. But before he could say anything, Konev's telegram for help reached the base camp - reporting that the Steppe Military Region was facing the threat of enemy armored forces and that the troops could not be used. , requiring a rapid increase in troops, materials and equipment;

Then he pinned his hopes on Meretskov, hoping to mobilize troops to attack Orel to reduce the pressure on Tambov. Meretskov did not explicitly refuse, but made a request: to mobilize the Western Front Army The troops would weaken the defense of Moscow. He hoped that the base camp would give up its support in the direction of Leningrad and replenish its troops to Moscow. Then he would send troops to attack Orel. In short, he requested that the Volkhov Front Incorporated into the Western Front.

Although Hoffman had clearly pointed out that the siege rather than the capture of Leningrad was the key at the moment when he handed over the operational tasks of Army Group North, Stalin must not lose Leningrad politically - he would rather lose Tambov than lose Leningrad. Le! Therefore, he refused to transfer the Volkhov Front to Moscow and only agreed to allow the Independent 7th Army to move south.

Although the independent 7th Army has a relatively large establishment, with more than 150,000 people, it is still far from enough. Meretskov agrees with the opinion of the General Staff and believes that the German army has at least one armored group ambushed in the central area, plus Orel The region has a strong defense line and more than 100,000 troops. Any offensive action with less than 300,000 troops is just a gift, so it continues to ask for troops and resources.

Discussions surrounding saving the central defense line quickly caused ripples in the Moscow base camp.

Stalin first frowned and listened to Zhukov's report: Bagramyan had begun to attack Karachi, but the operation was very unsatisfactory. Not only did the Italians rely on a solid defense line to resist, but the German aviation also put huge pressure on the front line.

"Tambov is in danger. Comrade Leutil's telegrams asking for help were sent to me one after another, and Karachi has been unable to open up the situation." Stalin held his beloved carved pipe, and although his tone was relatively calm, his heart was filled with anxiety. The anxiety was vivid, but he asked, "Comrade Constantine, what are you going to do next?"

"Now we can only hope that the comrades of the Bryansk Front Army can persist to the end, at least until Karachi is completely captured." Zhukov was in a dilemma. The Central Front Army had no air superiority, and the troops in Bagramyan's hands were helpless in the fight, which was even more unexpected. What's surprising is that the troops defending near Karachi - 2 Italian infantry divisions and 1 Italian armored division - are actually not weak. There are also 2 German infantry divisions nearby to provide flank cover, and the fight is not smooth.

"Please tell me, how long will it take to capture Karachi?"

"It may take another 7-10 days."

"I don't think Tambov can last that long." Stalin shook his head. "Once Tambov is lost, there will be a huge hole in the entire front. Even if Karachi is captured by then, it will be of no avail. Another method must be used."

"What do you mean?" Vasilevsky already knew that Stalin had been secretly contacting the troops in the past two days. He and Zhukov were fully aware of this private action, but they both pretended not to know and did not point it out. There was only one point on which the two men agreed: they must not send reinforcements to Tambov, otherwise they would be eaten.

"I want to set up a Moscow Front Army, with Comrade Tolbukhin as the commander of the Front Army, responsible for the defense of the southwest and south of Moscow." Stalin said calmly, "Initial consideration is to transfer the 7th Army and the base camp reserve to the Western Front. Front Army, and then 4-5 armies will be drawn from the Western Front to form the Moscow Front Army.”

In view of the fact that the strength of the Western Front was not enough to fully support the two-pronged battle, Stalin was forced to have no choice but to force all the newly formed reserve fronts, which were still weak in combat effectiveness, into the Western Front, and then added the 7th Army, and then he 400,000 troops were allocated from the Western Front to form the Moscow Front. On the surface, it seems that the strength and garrison locations of the Western Front have not changed, but in fact, due to combat effectiveness, the combat capability of the Western Front has dropped significantly.

Vasilevsky's face was very exciting. He pretended to have just learned the news and shouted in surprise: "Oh, this is great, but the base camp cannot be without reserve teams. Do you think you can deploy the troops to the grassland military region first? Let Comrade Konev bring the current troops of the Steppe Military District to Moscow to form a reserve force, so that we can gain another strong force in the autumn. "

Facing Vasilevsky who pretended to be confused, Stalin was really anxious.