Chapter 908 Soviet Counterattack (End)

Everyone knew that the German army had an obvious advantage in the middle. Everyone thought that the German army would launch an attack on the Ural Industrial Zone and destroy the last industrial base of the Soviet Union. In order to strengthen defense, Vasilevsky had been sent to the central battlefield to coordinate and command. He never expected that the German army would With a false shot, he turned around and headed south.

Rokossovsky looked at the map, then at the situation between the enemy and ourselves, and subconsciously muttered: "Since the enemy has turned around, let Comrade Vasilevsky attack from the center to pursue the enemy's tail."

"It's easier said than done." Zhukov sighed, "Army Group Center Model led three armies to block the exit of the Ural Mountains. How many troops are needed to defeat the German defenses?"

Everyone was silent when they heard that Model was guarding the gate. Last time, Meretskov launched an attack in the direction of Moscow and rushed through Model's defense line. As a result, his head was covered with bruises. Now Vasilevsky only has a weak brigade of Ural Front troops (front commander Govorov) in his hands. He originally wanted to use Govorov's defensive capabilities (he once defended Leningrad for a long time), but it seems to have been completely ruined. Got it

"Can Comrade Tolbukhin's Northwestern Front be allowed to launch a diversionary attack? Disrupt the rear of the Central Lutheran Army and force Model to withdraw?"

Zhukov shook his head: "Across from him, there is the German Army Group Northern staring at him. We cannot waver for a moment, otherwise Moscow will be in danger."

This concern is only on one hand. On the other hand, it is the special situation in the middle battlefield area: in order to maintain large-scale stability, Model only used the infantry group army to block the gap, and deployed the 2nd and 3rd armored group armies in the center of the battlefield to maneuver. The two defenses were more than 400 kilometers apart from each other, and they creatively developed the tactics of attacking troops to serve as strategic defense.

In this set of tactics, the traditional continuous front is not used, but instead the strategy of using firepower and mobility advantages to secure key points. The entire defense line starts from Voronezh and Tambov, passes through Kazan, Ulyanovsk, and ends at Ufa. The overall length of the defense line is more than 1,200 kilometers. If traditional troops are used to defend, even 1 million troops will be stretched thin and full of loopholes. , cannot withstand the Red Army's attacks at its weakest points, but once it is opened, it is not difficult for a small Red Army unit to penetrate, but if a large unit dares to move, it will be beaten into a sieve by 300,000 German armored troops.

But how could the huge central battlefield be changed by just a few divisions or even a few armies? Not to mention that there is still a large area of ​​​​no man's land here, and even guerrilla warfare cannot find a way to survive for a long time.

Everyone can see that after the German army blocked the Ural Mountains, a protrusion has formed in the direction of Moscow. It is in danger under the three-way attack of the German Army Group Center, the Russian People's Liberation Army St. Petersburg Army Group and the German Army Group North (including Finnish troops). Give up and Taking the initiative to retreat can also level the battle line in order to save troops. If we weaken the strength and move troops to the center, it will only lead to a dead end. But in a place like Moscow, can we just give up?

"Let the 38th Army cooperate with the 5th Guards Tank Army to stabilize the situation. Comrade Rokossovsky's two armies change direction, do not get closer to Comrade Chernyakhovsky, and cooperate with the 38th Army to counterattack the German SS. Army group." That night, Zhukov finally came up with the last resort, planning to use three and a half armies (with a total strength of about 250,000) to wipe out the intruding Hauser cluster. As long as this thorn is pulled out and the three and a half armies are united, there is still hope for closing the gap in the Caucasus.

"What about Uralsk?"

"Let Comrade Malinovsky's Independent Front block it." After cooperating with Chernyakhovsky to capture the Caspian Sea and penetrate into the Caucasus, Moscow officially upgraded the 300,000-strong Independent Army to an independent front. The front army serves as Zhukov's general reserve.

"In this way, Rostov will not be able to take it down, and there will be a serious shortage of troops."

"Rostov will continue to remain in the hands of the enemy. I will draw 150,000 people from Central Asia to fill the vacancy after the independent front army left." Zhukov sighed, "The enemy is much harder to fight than we thought. Plus there are more There are new reinforcements from the SS Panzer Army, and the pre-war deployment must be adjusted.”

Everyone was silent: In addition to the 100,000 people blocked by Chuikov in the Central Asian direction, there are still these 150,000 troops. Once they are withdrawn, if the separatist forces of various ethnic groups rise again, I am afraid it will develop into a prairie fire.

But now Zhukov must do this. If he does not block the German army in Uralsk, the Red Army on the southern flank will be attacked from behind and cannot let go of the attack. If troops are not transferred from Central Asia to serve as substitutes, Chernyakhovsky's offensive spearhead will be lost immediately. Spirited.

According to his adjusted thinking, Rostov would not take it. As long as he approached, he could still close the gap and force the Kleist cluster to retreat. But the SS thorn that has penetrated hard today must be pulled out, otherwise the threat will be too great and the next strategic plan will not be completed. He has quietly lowered the goal expectations of Project Mercury - from annihilating all German forces in the Caucasus to forcing the Germans to retreat and annihilating some of their forces.

Although Hausser carefully deployed two armored divisions, the Red Army still believed that it had encountered the SS Group Army. The reason for this misunderstanding is that reports from the front line stated that the enemy's armored grenadiers entered the battle in armored vehicles, with approximately 8 battalions - usually each German Panzergrenadier regiment was equipped with only one armored vehicle. Grenadier battalions, now the Guards and the Youth Division have invested 8 grenadier battalions in one go. In fact, only two divisions of Panzer Grenadier Regiments have been deployed, but it gives the illusion that the German army has deployed 4 divisions!

With 4 divisions plus 400-500 tanks, the Red Army Command speculated that the German army should have 5-6 divisions in the attack - just one armored army group. They never expected that this was just the momentum of two reorganized divisions. The SS16 National Leader Armored Grenadier Division was busy consolidating positions and dealing with prisoners as a reserve, and did not fire a single shot.

At night, a large number of German supply convoys arrived, not only to provide emergency repairs for damaged tanks, but more importantly to replenish fuel and ammunition for the rest of the troops. In less than 3 hours, nearly 200 3-ton tank trucks (net capacity of about 4,000 liters) were sucked dry, and more than 20 additional tank trucks had to be captured for replenishment. Compared with the tank thickness of civilian tank trucks of only 4-5mm, the tank thickness of military tank trucks (excluding the bottom) is nearly 10mm to take into account the need to defend against light weapons and explosion fragments. This 10mm adopts a double-layer tank structure, which greatly improves safety and survivability. Of course, if you have to use artillery shells, heavy machine guns or iron fists to deal with the oil tanker, then no matter how thick the tank is, it will explode.

After meeting their division commander, Peip and Meyer briefly reported today's combat situation and proposed to lead the special armored company (equipped with infrared equipment) to attack at night, but were rejected.

"Why?"

"Father Hausser told us to rest tomorrow and let the Imperial Division and the Skeleton Division go up to fight! Let them go for the night attack too!"

"Okay." Peip and Meyer, who didn't have enough fun, agreed reluctantly.

According to air force reconnaissance, Hausser was keenly aware of the Red Army's repulsion (not defeat) today and the opponent's determination to regroup. He was determined not to give the opponent a chance to breathe, and used the "wheel attack, wave advance" method that had been practiced for a long time to always maintain huge pressure on the Red Army.

Although this method of fighting is not as grand as the four-armored attack, it has a prominent advantage - logistics! The biggest problem restricting the 1944 type organization has always been logistics. As the battle line gradually deepens and lengthens, the logistics supply will become increasingly tight. The advantage of the wheeled attack is that the logistics support of two groups of troops is concentrated but only for one group of troops to attack. The second group of troops advances along the road opened up by the first wave of attacking troops, which can save a lot of fuel. Although the Tiger 2 tank is powerful on the battlefield, it is an absolute oil tiger. Before the war, each tank consumes half a ton of oil, and after a battle, it basically consumes half a ton of oil. Just dealing with several heavy armored battalions consumed more than 60 tankers. Although the Panther is better, it is not a fuel-saving lamp. In addition, there are a large number of infantry armored vehicles entering, and each one is crying for food.

The General Staff has made an assessment that the 1944 armored division consumes 500 tons of oil per day (calculated as 100 kilometers) in normal marching state, doubled in alert defense (no marching is required in defensive battles), and doubled again in offensive breakthrough state to reach 2,000 tons! If the Hausser Group were to advance with four weapons at the same time, it would consume at least 10,000 tons of fuel per day. Germany is not short of oil now, but it is difficult to maintain 10,000 tons of oil on the Eastern Front, which is separated from the railway line and can only be transported by car. Hausser thought it was better to be cautious and decided that only the Skull Division and the Imperial Division would lead the attack the next day.

The dispatch of special forces to attack was exactly what the commanders of the two divisions wanted. The two immediately dispatched troops equipped with infrared night vision equipment according to the standard night combat requirements. The officers and soldiers of the Red Army were going crazy at night. There were always German artillery shells flying in the dark. At first, they thought it was a blind coverage shooting by field artillery, but later they found out that it was a tank gun. The strange thing was that the opponent was very accurate. Those camouflaged and well-hidden anti-tank artillery positions and tank destroyers were pulled out one by one by the German army.

What is even more jaw-dropping is that a T-43 tank hiding in a circular fortification had a gap of less than 1 meter to the enemy, but was destroyed by a shell flying from more than 1,300 meters - the German army only used 3 shells!

In the early morning of May 27, Zhukov received a telegram in the headquarters that chilled his hands and feet: the German army landed in Batumi and Poti, with an estimated strength of 5-6 divisions, mainly infantry and mountain troops, and together with the original German defense forces, took the initiative to attack Chernyakhovsky's remaining troops; at the same time, the German troops near the Iranian border also reversed the situation of just defending in the past few days and turned to attack.

Uralsk is in danger!

Caucasus is in danger!

Transcaucasia is in danger!

Soviets are in danger!