Chapter 579 Summer Thunder (End)

In the General Staff Headquarters in Moscow, there was a dead silence, without a trace of life. Although it was a hot and energetic summer outside the window, the command headquarters was as solemn as winter, and everyone who entered and left had a gloomy face.

Originally, under the "wise" deployment of Comrade Stalin, the Red Army used refugees, an incredible method, to block the German army's advance. Among them were the old, weak, sick and disabled people abandoned by the Bolsheviks, the personnel who were too fast to retreat due to the German army's rapid advance, and the personnel who hid but reappeared. The total number has exceeded 1.2 million, and it is reported that it is still increasing, and may exceed 2 million at most.

This put great pressure on the German army, forcing them to stop the offensive and consume the hard-earned food. The guerrillas interspersed in it caused various public security incidents, forcing the enemy to act as an occupation force on the spot to maintain order - the strongest mechanized assault corps was blocked by the weakest peasants. The Russians did not know that Hoffman had officially issued an order that the Summer Thunder plan would be suspended until August 1, and it would be decided whether to continue or not depending on the situation.

Everyone was waiting for the retreating troops to adjust their deployment in time and build a new line of defense as soon as possible, and to support the winter break anyway. Unexpectedly, the Germans could not break the situation on the central battlefield, but they started a killing spree in the Caspian Sea and the hinterland of Central Asia - the thunder stopped, but the sharp arrows did not stop.

The geographical environment of the Gobi Desert in Central Asia is somewhat similar to the North African desert. Rommel's troops soon found the feeling of galloping. Unlike North Africa, the supplies here in the Caspian Sea can be fully guaranteed. A large number of ships, giant Me-323D transport planes, and medium-sized Ar-232C transport planes shuttled back and forth, jointly supporting the entire supply line. The Junkers Ju-52 transport plane, which was commonly used by the German army in the past, officially withdrew from the stage of history. But Junkers was not disappointed. These transport planes, like the Air Force's main medium bomber Ju-188, all used 1,800 horsepower Jumo-213E liquid-cooled engines, and they lived a happy life.

Things change. Now the most popular engine company is BMW. The BMW801 series has become the undisputed star, and the 901 series also has a large number of aircraft waiting to be used. Mercedes-Benz has the hardest time. In addition to meeting the small number of Bf-109 orders from abroad, their DB engine series can only keep the He-218 orders. Dr. Tank used the latest DB603 on the next generation mainstream piston fighter Ta-152, and the Armament Department also placed an order for 5,000 aircraft for this aircraft. Unfortunately, it will not be launched until at least autumn. Mercedes-Benz can only watch the orders for Fw-190 and Me-262 drooling but can't do anything.

There are many discerning people in the aviation industry. Everyone knows that the Japanese military will become the second major market in the future. Although Heinkel has tried its best to innovate on the He-218, if the Ju-198, which combines dive bombing and horizontal attack, is officially put into service, it will definitely be the first choice of the Japanese side. Even if the He-218 does not withdraw from the stage of history, its scope of use and order volume will be greatly limited, so Mercedes-Benz will continue to pay the price for its arrogance and short-sightedness.

Just one week after Rommel's successful landing, with the cooperation of Iranian troops, he achieved a jaw-dropping success: most of the western part of Turkmenistan and a small part of the western part of Uzbekistan were occupied. The Iranian and German troops were warmly welcomed by the various ethnic groups in Central Asia wherever they went. In many cases, the local people had spontaneously risen up to overthrow the Bolshevik regime before the German troops even arrived, and the remaining local Red Army troops fled. That situation gave people an illusion that it was not a battle, but an armed march.

The German army found that the Central Asian region was indeed completely empty and undefended, as the intelligence showed. It was not until July 24 that the Caspian Assault Group had advanced to 400 kilometers east of the Caspian Sea before encountering the first large regular army sent there. What was ridiculous was that it was the 7th Cavalry Army that came.

Rommel's armored forces and the planes above quickly turned this cavalry unit that had made great contributions in the Russian Civil War and came and went like the wind into a batch of corpses. In the end, all the living horses were used by the German army to transport supplies, and the horse corpses became food for the ethnic minorities in Central Asia.

Subsequently, with the support of the two countries, various independent regimes began to emerge. The Republic of Turkmenistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan successively declared independence. Pahlavi was not polite and directly included more than 200,000 square kilometers and nearly 500,000 tribal populations at the border with Iran into the territory of Iran. Iranian newspapers in Tehran could not hide the pleasure of revenge, and wrote in a large headline: "Now it's time for us to settle accounts with Stalin!"

When occupying the central oasis zone 500 kilometers away from the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea, located at the junction of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the Caspian Assault Group finally encountered some resistance, but this resistance looked more like a helpless act of dying struggle. From the successful landing to the final occupation of the oasis zone, Rommel brought out the characteristics of the Desert Fox to the fullest, and it seemed to repeat the scene of the North African hurricane.

Faced with large tracts of lost territory on the map and the continuous news of ethnic minority independence and uprisings, Stalin finally couldn't sit still, summoned Vasilevsky and Zhukov, and asked them sternly what they could do to deal with it.

"There is no good way now. The Central Asian troops are no match for the enemy's armored forces. They will die in vain. The fate of the 7th Cavalry Army has told us this." Zhukov sighed, "We are here The deployment of troops in this direction is too empty. Apart from a reserve army group in the north of the Caspian Sea, there is no other way to plug the leak within the current 500 kilometers in Central Asia. "

"What you mean is that the enemy will always be entrenched in Central Asia, and then incite all kinds of bad elements to break away from the alliance, and then the next step will be to occupy Tashkent, Dushanbe, Almaty and other big cities, and then wait for our Will the entire hinterland be in ruins?" Stalin was furious, "And you did nothing, not even daring to deploy a group army to intercept it?"

"It's useless. We sent planes to detect the enemy's movements. He has at least 60,000 to 80,000 armored troops and 80,000 to 100,000 Iranian infantry to cooperate. Not to mention one group army, even two group armies cannot defeat it."

"Then send 3, 4 or even 5."

"We don't have that many troops. If I transfer troops from the direction of Stalingrad, the enemy will definitely take advantage of the situation. By then, it will not be Central Asia that will be corrupted, but the entire southern front."

Stalin was anxious: "This won't work, that won't work either, what are you going to do?"

"Two things. On the one hand, we will mobilize troops from the Far East and prepare to continue to mobilize 300,000 to 400,000 to make up for the losses on the front line. Now that the Japanese army has begun to attack India, I think there is no danger in the Far East in the short term; on the other hand, we will continue to lure the enemy deeper and longer. The policy of the enemy's supply lines."

Stalin was noncommittal about the former suggestion. If Zhukov's blood drawing method was followed, the military strength in the Far East would soon be reduced to less than 1 million. Regarding the latter suggestion, he instinctively frowned and asked: "When will it count? Once The enemy's occupation of Central Asia will pose a great threat to our Ural industrial zone."

"That's about when the enemy goes to attack big cities like Tashkent, Dushanbe, Almaty."

"You!" Stalin slapped the table, furious: Among these three cities, the German army is still more than 800 kilometers away from the nearest Dushanbe, and a full 1,500 kilometers away from the farthest Almaty - more than from Warsaw. It’s still far from Moscow.

Seeing that Zhukov was about to quarrel with Stalin, Vasilevsky immediately intervened: "Comrade General Secretary, can I ask how the armistice negotiations are going?"

"Is this your concern?" Stalin glanced at him coldly, and the latter immediately fell silent.

"But it doesn't hurt to tell you." Stalin thought for a while and finally decided to tell the truth. "Comrade Molotov has flown to Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria) to start secret negotiations with Ribbentrop, but the progress is not going well. The Germans The asking price is very high, and it requires an armistice based on the existing fronts, and it also requires me to recognize the independence of the Central Asian countries. Is this a condition that I can easily agree to? "

Zhukov was stunned for a moment, and now he finally understood the sinister intention of Germany's proposal to retreat the existing front line by 500 kilometers: as long as the German army opens a gap anywhere, 500 kilometers of territory will be lost immediately. It is no wonder that Comrade Stalin is obsessed with "lubing the enemy deep into the territory" "The strategy was so revolting - every kilometer of retreat was like digging flesh into the Russian body.

"About Leningrad?"

"The other party agreed in principle to a ceasefire first, but the Germans took advantage of the situation and raised the refugee issue, demanding that we allocate food based on the standard of 2 million people... Damn it, if I had so much food, would the people still be hungry?"

Vasilevsky pointedly pointed out: "It seems that the enemy does not have the sincerity to negotiate an armistice."

"No, you are wrong." Zhukov shook his head, "The enemy is not insincere, the enemy just does not want to cease fighting in the summer."

"How long will it take for the Far East troops to be deployed to fight in Central Asia?"

"It may take half a month. If everything goes well, we can launch a counterattack in early September." Zhukov made a suggestion, "Would you consider communicating with the Germans once, and they will help to deal with the refugees. We will first remove the sick and injured prisoners of war." The disabled personnel should be returned to the German army - they cannot be used in combat anyway, so just return them to the enemy to increase their burden. Anyway, staying here is a waste of food. "

It took Stalin a long time before he nodded reluctantly: "I will tell Comrade Molotov that the central battlefield will be put aside for the time being. You must give priority to solving the Central Asian issue - I don't want to hear this again after September. Or independent news there.”

This volume is over, please continue reading the next volume "Agitation: The Enduring Contest".