Chapter 878 Military God Zhukov (3rd Update)

"Comrade Chief of General Staff, Commander Fedyuninsky sent a telegram that a large number of German tanks were discovered in the Lyuban area southwest of Leningrad. He feels that the German army is likely to launch an attack..."

"Attack?" Zhukov took a breath, "How many tanks were discovered? Where is our tank army currently?"

Lieutenant General Kokopev, Chief of Operations of the General Staff of the Red Army, replied: "According to the reconnaissance of the guerrillas and the air force, the German armored units that appeared in the Lyuban area should be at the group army level. And our army's 4th Tank Army and 6th Tank Army They are currently on standby near the city of Veliky Novgorod and can be maneuvered at any time.”

The Soviet Red Army tank unit that lost the Battle of the Junction suffered heavy losses. Together with the tanks/assault artillery lost on various battlefields on the Eastern Front, the number was almost over 6,000!

Moreover, the city of Kharkiv, one of the four major tank manufacturing centers in the Soviet Union, has also been attacked by the German army, and the factories in the city are being relocated urgently. The Kirov factory in Leningrad basically stopped production after Leningrad was besieged last year. So now two of the four major tank manufacturing centers in the Soviet Union are temporarily paralyzed. The production of tanks/assault artillery has been significantly reduced, and the rate of replenishment has also been slowed down.

In addition, it is not enough to have a tank without a tank crew and technicians to repair the tank. Soviet tanks are difficult to control (you have to be a racing driver to drive them well), and there are many faults, requiring high-level technicians to repair them. Replenishing the lost crews and machinery in a short period of time is probably even more difficult than replenishing tanks.

So I really don’t know when the losses of more than 6,000 tanks/assault artillery will be made up? The Supreme Command of the Soviet Red Army now also tastes the lack of tank troops!

In order to fight the Fourth Battle of Leningrad, the Supreme Command had to piece together a lot of things to create a 6th Tank Army for the Kalinin Front, and at the same time, it also supplemented the 4th Tank Army.

The two armies now have about 1,700 tanks/assault artillery. According to German standards, they are almost an "army-level" armored cluster.

However, after the Battle of the Junction, everyone in the Soviet army knew the fact that the Soviet tank force was far from the opponent of the German armored force!

Moreover, not many JS-2 heavy tanks, which Zhukov has high hopes for, have been built, so it is impossible for them to go into battle.

After listening to Kokopev's report, Zhukov's face was uncertain and thoughtful. After a while, he asked Marshal Pavlov: "What do you think of this battle?"

Marshal Pavlov is now the First Deputy People's Commissar of Defense. In theory, he is Zhukov's superior (most of the level), but in actual work, he is unknowingly influenced by Zhukov, as if he has become Zhukov's chief of staff. .

Hearing Zhukov's inquiry, he replied thoughtfully: "The Germans cannot be allowed to attack first... Now, except for the Leningrad siege front, neither side has a complete front, so whoever concentrates the armored forces first to attack will be the first."

Zhukov nodded. He and Pavlov had the same view on this issue... But Stalin had to wait for Leningrad to complete its rectification and the new JS-2 tanks to form combat effectiveness, which resulted in a delay of some time. Otherwise, the Kalinin Front would probably have started attacking by now.

"It's still too late!" Pavlov said, "We can let the 4th Tank Army and the 6th Tank Army attack immediately to attack the city of Pskov."

Zhukov shook his head. Pavlov's suggestion made him look down upon the old man.

If you lose the first move, you lose it. You can't get it back by chasing!

If we follow Pavlov's method to attack the city of Pskov, there will be more than 200 kilometers on the road. We will definitely not be able to walk during the day, otherwise the tank cluster will not be able to reach the place and will be blown up by German planes. And if you want to travel day and night, you have to walk at least two nights. You will be on the road tonight and tomorrow night. The fastest we can attack is the day after tomorrow. By then, the Germans will have rushed into Kalinin Oblast. What else are you going to fight?

"It's too late," Zhukov said softly, "We must abandon the plan of active attack and change to mobile defense."

"Mobile defense? How to defend?" Pavlov asked.

Zhukov has been thinking about this issue since his failure in the Battle of Gomel. The biggest problem in the Battle of Gomel was actually that the Soviet tank troops could not defeat the German armored clusters.

If you force yourself to attack when you can't defeat them, the losses will of course be heavy!

However, the Battle of Collective Farm No. 13 that occurred at the same time showed that the Soviet tank group could still withstand the superior strength of the German army in defensive operations. In this battle, the Soviet 5th Tank Army withstood the opponent's fierce attack for more than 20 days. In the end, although the entire army was wiped out, even the commander, General Lu Jin, was taken prisoner.

But the value of this battle is still huge. It taught Red Army commanders like Zhukov how to use tank groups for rapid maneuvers and then engage in defensive operations in the most critical areas.

"Tonight, let the 4th Tank Army and the 18th Army go to Maverick Vishela to set up defenses," Zhukov thought for a while and then said, "The two armies should form a composite group under unified command, with the tank brigade and the mechanized brigade as the two groups. The core is to lay out the defense line.”

The 18th Army was originally attached to the Southwest Front and participated in the fierce fighting on the right bank of Ukraine in the winter of 1942. When the Soviet-German war resumed in May 1943, the army was reorganizing near Moscow. It was recently replenished and transferred to the Kalinin Front.

And this 18th Army is the so-called "combined army", that is, a mobile group that combines motorized infantry, cavalry, mechanized troops and motorized artillery. It is of the same nature as the five assault armies, and they are all troops that can follow the tank group to fight in mobile operations.

In the later period of the "Junction Battle", the Soviet command department had realized the value of coordinated operations between this combined army and tank army in the strategic defense stage, so it became the focus of development.

According to Zhukov's thinking, since the Soviet-German battlefield was too vast, it was impossible for the Red Army to form a long and solid defense line. It could only use highly mobile combined groups to conduct defensive operations in the field without solid fortifications-this style of play was called "mobile defense" by Zhukov. Although it could not guarantee victory, it could at least obtain a relatively ideal exchange ratio.

Zhukov thought for a moment and then said, "The 6th Tank Army will continue to wait in the area of ​​Veliky Novgorod, and will launch a counterattack after the 4th Tank Army and the 18th Tank Army have fully consumed the German armored cluster."

"So should the left wing of the Kalinin Front retreat?" Pavlov then asked about the left wing of the Kalinin Front, that is, where the troops between Leningrad and Velikiye Luki should go.

According to the original plan, these troops were supposed to be used for the assault in the Baltic States. Now that the Germans are going to take the first step, there is naturally no need for this bluffing assault.

"Can't retreat." Zhukov shook his head, "Someone must block there, otherwise the German armored forces on the Smolensk front will easily go north to Pskov, and even enter the battlefield near Leningrad..."

"Enter the battlefield near Leningrad?" Pavlov frowned, "Are you worried that they will surround Leningrad again?"

"Yes!" Zhukov nodded, "If the Kalinin Front is defeated, the Germans will most likely surround Leningrad again... Our second capital of the Soviet Union is a big bargaining chip for peace! Moreover, the possibility that the German army will really capture Leningrad cannot be ruled out now.

So, Leningrad must also be prepared to be surrounded and defend the city again!"

...

The instructions of the Red Army Supreme Command soon caused a chain reaction in Leningrad-the old revolutionary Kaminsky, who joined the Red Army in 1918, was promoted from a captain deputy battalion commander to a major battalion commander, and his friend and superior Voskoponiko became the commander of the 644th Infantry Regiment, still Kaminsky's superior.

The 344th Infantry Regiment was affiliated to the newly formed 347th Infantry Division, which was formed on the basis of the Leningrad Anti-GM Family Soldiers, Siberian Labor Reform Soldiers and a small number of original regular troops. There were three infantry regiments under its jurisdiction, two of which were mixed with Leningrad Anti-GM Family Soldiers and Siberian Labor Reform Soldiers, and the other was a regular Red Army from other places.

Of course, both the Leningrad Anti-GM Family Soldiers and the Siberian Labor Reform Soldiers were organized as the Workers and Peasants Red Army led by the Bolshevik Party. Like the troops with the title of Guards, they were all revolutionary troops with party branches established from the company to the company, and political deputy positions (grassroots political work) were all available.

In addition, in addition to the unreliable troops such as the 347th Division (there were 30 such divisions in Leningrad), there were 15 more reliable divisions in Leningrad, including the 1st, 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd five internal guard infantry divisions.

The so-called internal infantry division is composed of members of the border guard force, domestic defense force and other forces controlled by the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (there were also hundreds of thousands of them before the outbreak of the war). It is a particularly loyal and reliable force. There are some in each front army, usually deployed 10-20 kilometers behind the front-line combat troops as a reserve and supervision team.

In Leningrad, 5 internal infantry divisions guard the core area of ​​the city. On their periphery are 10 ordinary Red Army infantry divisions (neither Leningraders nor from Siberia), defending most of the urban area of ​​Leningrad.

As for those who defend the periphery of Leningrad, of course, it is the "unreliable troops" such as the 347th Division of the Red Army.