The Rise of the Third Reich

Chapter 832: The Final Battle - The Salient

Because the German army occupied the entire right-bank Ukraine in the winter of 1942, and historically Latvia and Estonia had long been the Baltic states of the German Empire. Therefore, there was a Belarusian salient on the Soviet-German battlefield at the end of April 1943.

This is a huge protrusion surrounded by enemies on three sides, with a width of more than 400 kilometers from north to south and a length of more than 300 kilometers from east to west. At the same time, this is also the main defense area of ​​the Western Front of the Soviet Red Army (the commander is Marshal Kulik). The reason why the Western Front is still the "Western Front" instead of the "Belarusian Front" is because this Front still has jurisdiction over the besieged areas. Red Banner Army Group Warsaw in Warsaw (commanded by General Vasilevskiy).

Including the besieged Red Flag Warsaw Group, the number of troops under the command of Marshal Kulik, commander of the Western Front, exceeds 1.5 million. It is currently the ten largest front armies in the Soviet Union (Western Front, Southwestern Front, Northern Front, Leningrad Front, Kalinin Front) Front, Reserve Front, Far Eastern Front, Siberian Front, Central Asian Front and Indian Front).

However, after deducting the nearly 700,000 troops trapped in Warsaw, Marshal Kulik had only more than 800,000 troops at the end of April 1943. The front line that these more than 800,000 Red Army troops need to defend extends from the junction of Smolensk and Kalinin Oblasts in Russia to the confluence of the Pripyat and Dnieper rivers near Kiev in Ukraine. The total length of the defense line exceeds 900 kilometers!

Moreover, Marshal Kulik cannot deploy all his troops evenly on this 900-kilometer-long defense line. Because the Supreme Command (actually Stalin's will) also gave two important cities Minsk and Smolensk that must be defended.

According to the instructions of the Supreme Command, Marshal Kulik released the elite 4th Army (comprising the 28th Infantry Corps, the 14th Mechanized Corps, the 62nd Fortification Area, the Independent 4th Tank Destroyer Brigade and other units) in the fortress-like Minsk. , with a total strength of more than 120,000), and a Minsk militia with more than 80,000 troops (these 80,000 are also among the 1.5 million troops of the Western Front).

In Smolensk, Marshal Kulik released the front headquarters and the 5th Tank Army directly under the headquarters (the commander was Lukin), the 22nd Infantry Army, the 51st Fortification Area and other units, and also formed a number of troops More than 50,000 militia troops.

On the Smolensk-Vitebsk line (located at the northern root of the Belarusian salient), Kulik deployed the elite 3rd Army; on the Vitebsk-Minsk half-moon front, Kulik deployed Kulik deployed the 10th Army; on the Minsk-Pripyat River (near Pinsk) line, Kulik deployed the 11th Army; on the Pripyat-Dnieper River area, Kulik deployed the 13th Army .

In addition, in Chervin, located in the center of the Belarusian salient, Kulik placed another 16th Army as a reserve (directly under the jurisdiction of the Front Army Headquarters).

In this way, there are 6 armies, 1 tank army (the Soviet Red Army is now larger than at the same time in history, with a total of 60 ordinary combined armies, 5 tank armies and 5 assault armies), 1 infantry corps, and more than a dozen militiamen divisions, as well as some independent artillery, rocket artillery, tank and cavalry units, as well as the 2nd Air Force Army, are the forces that the Western Front can use to defend the Belorussian salient.

These forces were of course very insufficient in the view of the Front Commander Marshal Kulik and the Front Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Pokrovsky. But they did not frequently ask for help from Moscow, because they knew very well that the role of the Western Front and the Belarusian Bulge was just cannon fodder to attract the attention of the German army!

Although Belarus is important, it is not worth mentioning compared with Leningrad in the north, which is in urgent need of relief, and the industrial area of ​​Eastern Ukraine, which must be defended in the south. Moreover, there is a powerful reserve front army behind the Western Front. Even if the Western Front is trapped in a tight siege, the reserve front army can complete the arduous task of encircling Moscow.

Therefore, when Kulik and Pokrovsky were defending the Belarusian salient, they did not intend to fight the Germans head-on. Instead, they made a plan for the front-line troops to fight and retreat to Minsk and Smolensk - Belarus Most of the territory in the salient can be lost, but the two cities of Minsk and Smolensk are best defended. As long as it is defended, the road from Western Belarus to Moscow will be difficult to walk, and the German army will not be able to free its hands and feet to attack the capital of the Soviet Union.

But making plans is always easier than executing them. On the night of April 30, 1943, Kulik and Pokrovsky were worried about whether to shrink their troops immediately.

During the daytime battle on April 30, the first lines of defense at the northern and southern roots of the Belarusian salient were both breached by German armored groups - this was not a very difficult thing, because the four Soviet armies (almost 400,000 people) have to defend a long front of 900 kilometers, and it is deployed in depth at multiple levels. The strength of the front line is very limited. It is impossible to block the breakthrough of the German army's concentrated forces!

Similarly, due to the large-depth deployment, the Soviet army's front-line troops in the Belarusian salient were thin, and it was difficult to test the Germans' true and false strength during the breakthrough process.

"Comrade Commander, according to the reports of the 3rd and 13th Armies, the Germans who broke through did not deploy a large number of Tiger tanks." Pokrovsky said to Kulik while reading a stack of reports, "In fact, the number of tanks and assault artillery deployed by the Germans was not as many as imagined, but the intensity of the shelling was unexpected. The artillery companies of the 3rd and 13th Armies had no strength to fight back."

Cannons do not burn oil. For the European Community, which has integrated most of Europe's industrial capacity and has an adequate supply of rare metals, the ability to manufacture large-caliber artillery is very surplus, even exceeding that of the American tycoons across the ocean.

Now the United States claims to produce 100 million tons of steel per year, but in fact it only produces 80 million tons per year. Germany's annual steel production has exceeded 32 million tons, France produced 8.2 million tons of steel in 1942, Belgium produced more than 7 million tons of steel, Britain produced 13 million tons of steel, Croatia-Hungary produced 1.5 million tons of steel, the capital of the European Community (referring to the Alsace and Lorraine regions) produced 2.3 million tons of steel, and the remaining European Community countries produced about 1 million tons of steel per year, a total of 65 million tons!

In addition, Sweden and the Netherlands, two neutral countries that clearly favor Germany (they are both members of the European Customs Union), produced a total of about 5 million tons of steel in 1942.

Therefore, in terms of steel production, the European Community (not counting the Roman Empire with more than 3 million tons of steel) and the United States are almost on par. In terms of the production of machine tools, electricity, and various non-ferrous metals (including large categories such as aluminum and copper), the European Community is not inferior to the United States.

These productions are reflected in the military, resulting in the fact that as long as the weapons do not burn oil, Germany (European Community) must have more than the United States, let alone the Soviet Union.

The towed artillery is the most powerful of all the weapons that do not burn oil, so by the end of April 1943, the number of artillery owned by the German army (including the French army, the Croat-Hungarian army, the Finnish army, etc.) far exceeded that of the Soviet army.

Moreover, the Soviet artillery was not very brave to fire because of the threat from the air, so in the daytime battle on April 30, it was the German artillery that bullied the Soviet Red Army infantry.

Not only were the Red Army guarding the two areas that seemed to be the concentrated breakthrough points of the German army bombarded by the German artillery, but the Red Army on the entire front (including the Belarus salient front and the Dnieper River defense line) was bombarded. Moreover, in many important areas, the intensity of the German artillery bombardment was unprecedented, almost in the style of World War I!

Therefore, from the Red Army Supreme Command to the headquarters of the following fronts, on the night of April 30, no one knew where the main breakthrough direction of the Germans was - although the situation seemed to be to eat up the Belarus salient first, but no one dared to be so sure.

Looking at the map, Marshal Kulik's eyebrows twisted into a "chuan" shape, making his already fierce face look even more frightening.

The marshal thought for a moment, and suddenly said to the chief of staff Pokrovsky beside him: "The enemy's purpose of breaking through the root of the Belarus salient is not necessarily to encircle the Red Army in the salient."

"Not to encircle us?" Pokrovsky looked at the two black arrows on the map and found the problem. "Then to break through the Dnieper River?"

"Yes!" Kulik nodded and said, "The main defense section of the Dnieper River defense line is downstream of the confluence of the Pripyat River and the Dnieper River. North of the confluence of the two rivers, the Southwestern Front did not deploy heavy troops, and the river channel was relatively narrow, making it difficult to resist the German breakthrough. The German army that broke through the Pripyat River could completely break through the Dnieper River in the Chernigov area and break into the right wing of the Southwestern Front from the junction of us and the Southwestern Front. If the Southwestern Front's defense line adopts a deep layout, such a breakthrough is not Fatal, but now the main force of the Southwestern Front is concentrated on the Dnieper River defense line. Once the German army outflanks from the right wing of the Dnieper River defense line, it is likely to cause the main force of the Southwestern Front to be surrounded. "

Marshal Kulik paused and said slowly: "So... we don't have to worry about the German army breaking through the Velikaya River. At most, we can withdraw the 3rd Army to the 51st fortification area (around Smolensk). But the German army breaking through the Pripyat River must be taken seriously!

We must be prepared for a battle in Chernigov or Bryansk east of the Dnieper River! "

Chapter 832/1262
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