Chapter 911: Encirclement (3,5100 Votes Plus Additional Content)

Kuznetsov is in a hurry: Abandoning Moscow is worse than an armistice! Comrade Stalin also stayed in Moscow during the most dangerous period in 1941, and finally turned the corner. If the southern flank is abandoned, the political passivity may be slightly less, but the military embarrassment will be even greater. Moscow will become the only salient and sooner or later it will be surrounded by millions of German troops.

In short, the two protrusions of Moscow and Stalingrad must exist at the same time to be meaningful. Without either one, the other will not be spared. On the contrary, if there were no two protrusions in the north and south, only the protrusion in the central battlefield could be maintained relatively speaking.

"Let me think about it, think about it..." Stalin's mind was spinning rapidly, "There will be an emergency meeting of the Communist Party of China tonight to discuss your ideas. An armistice can be negotiated. What are the conditions?"

Obviously, political questions like conditions should not be asked to Zhukov, but Stalin's raising them now has special significance, which means that Zhukov can implicitly explain what territory can be defended militarily.

Zhukov sighed, stared at the map, and said with great pain: "If we analyze purely from the military situation, if we withdraw the main force from Stalingrad and the Caucasus and retreat in two directions, it seems that we can rely on the Ural River and the east coast of the Caspian Sea. , Central Asia established a relatively stable continuous defense line on the southern flank; the Moscow front-line protrusion on the northern flank could only be abandoned, retreated to the Perm-Ufa front line to cover the Ural area, and exchange control areas with the German army."

The Perm-Ufa line is currently where Model is blocked, but the area is not large. It is only 400 kilometers from north to south and 300 kilometers from east to west. Kuznetsov secretly looked at the map. This is equivalent to the entire Soviet Union. Most of the large cities and industrially developed areas fell into the hands of the enemy.

Stalin walked to the map and studied it carefully. His face became uglier as he looked at it, but he rarely got angry: "I understand. You should arrange the various tasks properly first, and at least the current defense line must be defended. In the evening, you will tell **** **Comrades please explain.”

Before Zhukov could say anything, he added: "Call Comrades Vasilevsky and Antonov in Yekaterinburg and ask them to find a way to come back. If they can't come back tonight, they will come back tomorrow morning. On the way Pay attention to safety; in addition, Comrade Meretskov will be notified to attend the meeting.”

Kuznetsov knew he was not qualified to attend. In fact, since last winter, the command of the entire Red Army has been divided into three parts: Zhukov went to command the southern wing and controlled about 2.5 million troops; Meretskov actually commanded the northern front as the commander of the Moscow Front, controlling about 1.8 million troops; Although Fsky and Antonov are in charge of the General Staff, they are actually mainly in charge of the middle battlefield and control less than 900,000 troops.

As for Kuznetsov himself, although he still carries the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Navy and a member of the Supreme Command, except for a few ships in the Pacific Ocean, the rest of the Red Navy has been basically wiped out. The remaining base officers and soldiers, shipless sailors and security guards The army was also gradually incorporated into the Marine Corps (actually the Army) during several reorganizations. He was basically a mere commander with no power at all. He could only do administrative work in the Supreme Command, collect telegrams, and listen to Stalin's remarks. Dad complained, and among the military generals, he was scolded the most. Of course, he was much better than Timoshenko and others - Comrade Stalin didn't even want to see them, let alone scold them.

Zhukov nodded with a heavy heart.

Stalin in turn patted him on the shoulder: "Comrade Constantine, be strong and fight like a steel giant with your chest raised! The Germans cannot defeat us! I was arrested 7 times by the Tsarist government for participating in revolutionary activities. I was exiled 6 times and escaped from Siberia 5 times, but never lost my confidence in revolution and victory. During the civil war, the White Gang was so aggressive that it once occupied three-quarters of Russia's territory, and finally survived. Let’s talk about the armistice if we can. If not, I’ll take you to Siberia to fight guerrillas!”

Zhukov choked up and said: "I believe you will lead us to final victory."

When they heard that there was an emergency on the southern flank, especially when they heard that the Germans had dispatched an unprecedented SS Panzer Group, Vasilevsky and Antonov took the risk to return to Moscow on a B-25, regardless of the risk. This B-25 is a material aided by the United States under the Lend-Lease Act. Although the United States provided a lot of aid to the Soviet Union, it never provided much assistance to 4-engine heavy bombers and transport aircraft. It only provided twin-engine C-47s and B-25s. The Soviet Union It has repeatedly hoped to obtain B-17s and B-29s, but the United States has not responded. It has only used B-29s to transport some important documents, materials and spare parts in the recent period after the Far East route was blocked and Japan collected protection fees.

The reason why the United States is willing to provide B-25 is because after the Doolittle bombing of Tokyo, a B-25 made an emergency landing in Vladivostok and was detained by the Soviet side. To the Soviet Union, the B-25 was not a mystery. It had even figured it out thoroughly. Therefore, the United States has just exported a few hundred B-25s, and there are not many left after continuous losses. In order to save fuel consumption, the Red Army bombers have basically been out of service, and the B-25 has naturally been mothballed. Now the situation is urgent, and Vasilevsky and Antonov have to take the risk of returning on the B-25 at night without fighter escort.

As soon as they got off the plane, the two went straight to the headquarters. At this time, the situation on the southern front was clearer and more difficult: the 24th Army and the 1st Guards Tank Army were officially surrounded; the 38th Army and the 5th Guards Tank Army were attacked by the Hausser Group. In pursuit, the remaining blocking forces could not stop the German armored forces that drove straight in; Yereomenko cooperated with Chernyakhovsky's troops to attack the Kleist cluster and it was difficult to retreat for a while; Guderian's troops basically retreated at noon. After continuing to advance for more than 20 kilometers, the 3rd Army lost another 2 divisions and 1 tank brigade, and the remaining total strength was less than 50,000...

The ****** emergency meeting was held today for the first time at the Supreme Command. In order to let everyone better understand the frontline dynamics, Zhukov specially asked people to use a sand table to simulate the possible evolution of the situation in the next stage. All the committee members who understand military affairs His face changed drastically, and even the committee members who didn't know much about military matters frowned: the troops marked with red flags on the map were vaguely surrounded by densely packed blue troops, whether tanks or aircraft (a small model represented 100 ) are both much more enemy troops, and even the number of enemies is greater.

A Red Army major general from the General Staff revealed the results of the war game to everyone with sweating profusely: In 7-10 days based on the existing front line, the German army can sweep away the existing Red Army in the Caucasus Plain and reach Stalingrad and Astor. At the same time, the Guderian Cluster and the Weikes Cluster in the north will completely close the northern line of encirclement - a circle surrounded by five points: Saratov, Uralsk, Stalingrad, Astrakhan and Atyrau. The huge encirclement formed by the four fronts, including the Southwest, Don, Stalingrad and Independence Fronts, totaling more than 1.2 million troops. If Chernyakhovsky's attack group also retreats here, there will be five fronts. Cluster, 1.5 million troops. This was an encirclement that was larger than the encirclement of Kiev, with more surrounded troops and a more obvious enemy advantage.

"The only weak part of this encirclement is the section from Uralsk to Atyrau. You can retreat with all your strength towards Aktobesk, but after crossing the east bank of the Ural River, you will enter the Kazakh hilly area..." The staff members clicked on that continuous area. In the rolling mountainous area, "the road conditions are very poor and there are almost no residents. It will be difficult to retreat if there is a lack of supplies."

No one asked whether it was possible to stick to such silly words: the Caucasus is just an endless steppe, and only a ghost believes that infantry can stop tanks; although Stalingrad is strong, judging from the situation, it is surrounded on three sides, and Astrakhan The defense strength is weaker. The Red Army's strength has just been weakened and the German army is stronger than before, making it difficult to defend. Once the Ural River is cut off, even if it can be defended, after the source of supplies is cut off, will these 1.5 million people go to drink from the northwest wind?

Everyone frowned, and no one spoke for a long time. Everyone looked at Stalin and then at Zhukov, not knowing what to say.

After a while, someone finally stood up to speak, but it was Khrushchev. He pointed at Zhukov with an angry look and yelled: "Comrade Zhukov, the military situation is so passive, you have an unshirkable responsibility, you..."

Zhukov ignored his eagerness to add insult to injury and interrupted directly: "I misjudged the enemy's situation, underestimated the enemy's strength, and even failed to see through the plot after the enemy pretended to retreat and continued the attack. I will take full responsibility, frontline commanders and soldiers I have tried my best, and all faults are mine alone, but..."

Stalin picked up his pipe and took a deep drag, noncommittal.

Vasilevsky looked at the troop allocation and said: "If I mobilize two fronts from the direction of Moscow to go south to support them and open up the Ural River..."

Zhukov shook his head with a wry smile and signaled his staff to continue the deduction: The two front armies were first intercepted by Army Group Center in the middle, with two armored armies as the main force, and then they were intercepted by Army Group East and Guderian Group. The casualties were still there. Secondly, the critical time needs to be at least 6-7 weeks. During this time, the more than 1.8 million Axis troops in the direction of Moscow can completely defeat Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Tula, Ryazan, Tver, and Kaluga. Capture the entire front - more than 2 million citizens and 900,000 troops in the direction of Moscow will be surrounded.

Even if the southern wing troops successfully relieve the siege and then send the army north, it will take another 6-8 weeks. In other words, Moscow needs to persist for 3-4 months with only half the strength of its opponent and with completely inferior equipment and supplies. This is also in the spring and summer when the weather is the best. Everyone is smiling bitterly. This is simply not true. It was an impossible task, and the food problem alone was tormenting people to death. Who dares to say that if the two front armies move south, they will definitely be able to lift the southern line encirclement? What if the German Army Group Center in the north follows and moves south?

The scene was deathly silent, and everyone focused their attention on Stalin, who was looking out the window with his back to everyone...