Chapter 926 Turning Point (5,6300 Votes Plus Additional Content)
When Rommel led the German army to advance triumphantly on the battlefield of Iceland, the battlefield on the southern wing of the Eastern Front entered a pursuit war with greater momentum and wider scenes.
Knowing that the Russians intended to beg for peace, Manstein instructed all units to speed up the pace of attack, focusing on annihilating the enemy's living forces, especially to encircle and annihilate their combat-capable tank units and guards. The various groups understood and changed the initial passive defense scene, and instead launched a massive interspersed tactic to fight an annihilation war.
After receiving the reply from the Bulgarians that Ribbentrop agreed to meet on June 1, Molotov breathed a sigh of relief. Although he was anxious, he did not consider the Germans' deliberate delay of time - the request for talks was only made on May 28, and the German side had to at least discuss and communicate internally, and also had to discuss specific matters such as venue arrangements with Bulgaria. Replying and agreeing to meet on June 1 the next day was completely efficient.
Molotov saw clearly that the German army had a clear advantage on the battlefield, so how could he stop without releasing them to take advantage? He was a senior diplomat and knew that diplomatic negotiations were no small matter, and the military situation determined the negotiation scene. What would it matter if the meeting was early? If the Germans wanted to delay deliberately, they could find ten thousand ways and reasons. Now, not only did they readily agree to a meeting in four days, but they also submitted some of the talks requirements through secret channels the next day. He believed that the Germans should be equally eager for peace talks - no matter what the conditions were, at least there was a good foundation.
But the negotiation terms written in black and white left him speechless. The conditions were far beyond his expectations: the Soviet Union still had at least two salients, Moscow and Stalingrad, and the Germans were going to let the Bolsheviks retreat to the east of the Ural Mountains with a wave of their hands; the German army in Central Asia was clearly blocked in the basin, and the separatist forces were suppressed by Zhukov with an iron fist, but they kept demanding the independence of Central Asia; Germany clearly required the Bolsheviks to reduce their troops to within 2 million, but stated that Germany would station 1 million troops on the land of the Menshevik regime and gradually withdraw in 20 years...
The Germans kept saying that the core conditions had not changed, but in Molotov's eyes, many of the terms were really hard to read - wasn't the last negotiation ultimately unresolved because the conditions were too harsh? After considering it and obtaining Stalin's consent, he decided not to spread the conditions first to avoid causing an uproar, at least he had to listen to Ribbentrop's own words to infer the other party's true intentions.
But the atmosphere was different late at night on the 29th. The Red Army received a report that the Germans had landed in Iceland and fought a big battle. They learned that the Germans had dispatched tens of thousands of aircraft to attack the British Isles and used a huge fleet to cover the landing of the army. The members of the Red Army's Supreme Command took a breath: the Germans launched a large-scale attack on two battlefields at the same time, which gave them a deeper understanding of the Axis power and strength.
The situation reported from the front line was also very bad. The Germans not only had new tanks (Panther and Tiger 2), but also had a large number of them. What was more troublesome was that the German armored grenadiers were now equipped with all armored vehicles and STG43, and with a large number of self-propelled artillery, the level of attack and assault capabilities were completely improved by several levels, which exacerbated Moscow's concerns.
It was thought that the Soviets could slightly reverse the imbalance caused by the Tiger by taking out new tanks such as IS-2 and T-43/85. Unexpectedly, the Germans had a lot of new equipment with better performance, stronger strength and more numbers, which made everyone frustrated. Now the T-34/76 tanks have basically stopped production. Voroshilov can only guarantee that the monthly output of tanks will be maintained between 600 and 700, of which more than 120 are IS-2, the rest are T-43/85, and there are more than 200 SU-85 or SU-122 produced on the T-34 chassis.
Seeing the dazzling Panther and overwhelming armored vehicles of the SS Army, everyone knows how big the gap is with Germany.
This is true for tanks and aircraft. It was thought that the entire strength of the German Air Force was concentrated on the Eastern Front, but now it seems far from it. Germany still has at least 5,000 aircraft in the direction of Western Europe, while the Red Army's available aircraft has dropped to less than 6,000. What's worse is that the continuous losses in battle have caused heavy losses to pilots. Female pilots account for one-third of the Red Army and 20% of the front-line troops, but there is a difference between men and women after all. Young people who generally only had 20-30 hours of flight training rushed to the battlefield. Most of them could only survive 3-5 sorties, and only one or two pilots in a hundred could survive after 10 sorties.
What's more troublesome is that from time to time, some people would escape with their planes, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs couldn't do anything about it: if they exaggerated it, the front line would immediately be in a predicament of having no planes to use; if they didn't, it seemed that something was missing again - because the Russian Liberation Army was constantly promoting and luring its own pilots to defect.
It was not even possible to distinguish between defection and death in action. The troops had made jokes more than once: they thought someone had died gloriously, but in fact, they were found to be in the Russian Liberation Army not long after.
Late that night, Zhukov hurried back to the southern front to take charge. He could not bear to see the situation in the entire Caucasus being completely destroyed:
In the Transcaucasus, Chernyakhovsky left more than 50,000 troops to block the German and Iranian troops alone to buy time for his own retreat. The offensive group retreated in two routes - one crossed the Caspian Sea to the east coast, and the other went north to join Yeremenko;
As for Uralsk, the leading troops of the Malinovsky Independent Front and the leading troops of the German army arrived there almost at the same time, but it was obviously the German Sixth Armored Group that was faster to fight the larger forces. Although Uralsk had more than 50,000 troops on its books, People, but they are just old, weak, sick and disabled, with no fighting ability at all;
On the Caucasus plains, several army groups trapped in the German encirclement are making their final resistance. All troop structures have been disrupted and arbitrarily divided into small groups of troops, ranging from 3 to 4 thousand people to a few. Although it would take some time for the Germans to deal with them, Zhukov knew that it would only take 3-5 days, and without consuming the most powerful armored assault group of the German army, the infantry division alone would be enough to deal with the Red Army in the encirclement;
On the flank of Stalingrad, Guderian devoured the 3rd Army and stormed the right wing of the city. Vatutin tried his best to resist it. Hausser stormed the left wing of the city. The forward had approached the Volga River. Once the German army crossed the river, they successfully captured the opposite side. If Akhtubinsk is reached, Stalingrad and Astrakhan will be separated, and the troops guarding the center along the Volga River total less than 200,000 people, which cannot stop Hauser, Hott and K Leicester's three clusters took turns to attack.
Zhukov's order was decisive: the Transcaucasus troops crossed the river and retreated eastward; the troops in the Caucasus Plains stood firm at their original starting positions on the north bank of the Volga River, and the weakened troops were transferred from Chernyakhovsky and 150,000 troops from Central Asia. In addition, Malinovsky wanted to withstand the impact of the Weicker Group, instructing Vatutin to move closer to Stalingrad and shrink the defense line. At the same time, he sent the 13th Army to block the offensive pace of the Guderian Group and prevent it and Weicker. The Sri Lankan swarm attacked Uralsk.
His judgment was very accurate. In the final analysis, the troops must be able to fight. Except for the relatively complete transfer of Chernyakhovsky's troops, the rest suffered more or less losses, especially the three southern front armies. The defensive state switched to offensive, and then switched to defensive again after a few days of fighting. The troops were confused and morally disorganized. The higher-level military leaders could no longer control the troops. Those numbers moved around on the staff map and looked like they were related to the German army. The offense is tit for tat, and the actual performance is completely different.
For two consecutive days on the 28th and 29th, the Red Army lost more than 120,000 people due to death, injury, capture, and escape. Many numbers were left empty-handed or only their headquarters were still functioning. Corps commanders and division commanders did not know who they were. How many people are there, how can it be possible to achieve effective tactical effects? Such a hollow soap bubble will be burst even if it barely reaches the defense line.
In the early morning of May 30, the fighting on the southern front entered a fever pitch. Zhukov was surprised to find that several divisions and corps had been completely wiped out within a few hours of filling the defense line. This was not because the troops were collapsing faster or the German offensive was intensifying. It's because these troops are weak to begin with. They think they're a bit good without fighting, but once they fight, all their true colors are exposed. That afternoon, Maykop was recaptured by the Germans; at night, the Red Army abandoned Grozny and Baku, which they had finally recaptured, and accelerated their withdrawal.
Although Meretskov was determined to dispatch three fronts for rescue, the mobilization and adjustment of millions of troops was not an easy task. In order to shorten the front and gather forces, a large area north of Yaroslavl on Moscow's northern flank was abandoned. Even so, Vasilevsky believes that it is not enough, and the war on the southern flank may collapse before the rescue troops arrive. He directly met with Stalin and proposed to abandon Stalingrad, preparing to have the Southwest and Don Fronts retreat eastward and hold on to the line from Astrakhan to Atyrau.
It was difficult for Stalin to agree to this request. Special negotiations were about to begin. The more he gave up, the more he would lose in future negotiations. However, First Deputy Chief of Staff Antonov also held similar opinions, forcing Stalin to agree to consider the idea and forward the telegram to Zhukov.
Zhukov acknowledged the horror of Stalingrad and Astrakhan being divided and surrounded, and also believed that it was necessary to abandon Stalingrad and shorten the front line. But how could hundreds of thousands of troops withdraw unscathed now? Once they gave up, they would be transferred. During the process, he was pursued by the German army and suffered a lot of losses. He suggested that the situation in Leningrad should be followed, and that the Red Army would peacefully transfer Stalingrad to Stalingrad as a sign of sincerity, and the German army declared a ceasefire on the spot.
Whether it succeeds or not depends on the outcome of Molotov's negotiations on June 1. It is impossible to abandon Stalingrad at least in these two days. No matter how difficult it is to fight, he will have to bite the bullet and lead Vatutin and Rokossovsky to fight. Go down.